JOURNALISM: Syd Albright appreciated

Reporter Devin Weeks “stole my thunder” when she read Mike Patrick’s Editorial “Check out Syd’s marching history army” (January 2020). The History Club was packed Tuesday and I went to plan B! I did a show-and-tell along with several of Albright’s 600 articles.

A perfectionist, Syd was unhappy with how “The mystery of beeswax and a lost Spanish galleon in the Pacific Northwest” was printed (April 2017). “The photos were tombstoned?” I had done geology on the Oregon coast in 1969 and I disagreed with Syd. That article was great and was reprinted (August 2021)!

Another great article was” Did dinosaurs roam Idaho? Yes, but how long ago is the debate” (July 2015). This was a masterpiece of writing skill and intellect, in which the Biblical Catastrophic/ Creationist Worldview was debated against Evolution.

He was a master of kindly including others! So, we discussed some Sundays’ “History Corners:” 1) “Nephilim giants once walked the Earth — history or hoax,” (October 2016), 2) “When the Missoula Flood drowned the Northwest” (November 2016) and 3) “Ancient mega-shark once ruled the ocean” (January 2017).

Syd asked me to find an Ice-Age Missoula Flood erratic close to Coeur d’Alene. Seven miles from his home is the 47-ton “tumbled” sedimentary boulder at 2016 Beck Road!

“Martin Luther and the Christian World” and “the Antifa Story” (March 2022) were Syd Albright’s last articles.

Thanks Syd for making History fun!

JIM PEARL

Hayden