PATRICK: Rival then, friend now

I viewed Mike Patrick as a rival in fall 2001 when he began managing the Coeur d’Alene Press.

I’d seen Press editors come and go since 1984 when I joined the Coeur d’Alene office of the Spokesman-Review. I figured Mike would write forgettable editorials, swap out a cartoon or two, join a service club, skirt controversy, and leave. He would be a name I wouldn’t remember 10 years later.

I was wrong.

Mike came, inspired his talented staff, and rattled cages.

His editorials are must reads. When other papers, like my former one in Spokane, shied away from endorsements and editorials altogether, Mike tilts with extremists and straying politicians without fear or favor.

His news columns are full of hard-hitting reports that make power brokers squawk about “fake news,” “RINOs,” “liberals” and other nonsense. Bullies of health and school boards don’t intimidate him.

Mike’s most amazing feat, as far as I’m concerned, occurred when he coaxed his higher-ups — and me ­— to run my Huckleberries column in the Press as the pandemic took hold in spring 2020. I relish the chance to see my work in the hometown paper after 35 years in the SR.

This former rival will miss Mike when he semi-retires May 27.

An old newsman once said: “It is newspapers’ duty to print the news and raise hell.” At a time when newspapers are struggling to survive and afraid to step on toes, Mike Patrick has done just that.

D.F. “DAVE” OLIVERIA

Coeur d’Alene