Yes­ter­day, the Pacif­ic North­west learned that one of its longest-serv­ing, hard­est work­ing scribes will soon con­clude his dis­tin­guished career at the Seat­tle Post-Intel­li­gencer after almost fifty years of ser­vice to the region.

Joel Con­nel­ly, who I am hon­ored to call a friend, has announced that he will be retir­ing from Hearst (which owns the P‑I) as of June 30th.

It’s the end of an era. He broke the news on Face­book and Twit­ter.

A birth­day announce­ment, in place of usu­al taste­less humor about grow­ing old: I will retire from SeattlePI.com at the end of June. Want to stay on job thru pan­dem­ic, and allow reg­u­lar read­ers to ramp up new insom­nia cure.

I am last sur­vivor of print Seat­tle Post-Intel­li­gencer. As of end of June, will be almost 47 years since I signed on as sum­mer replace­ment. Seat­tle May­or Wes Ull­man was fac­ing uphill reelec­tion race.

If I had stayed thru elec­tion, gloomy Novem­ber would be my first retire­ment month. Instead, get to spend time at glo­ri­ous fam­i­ly cab­in on Whid­bey, and con­tribute the occa­sion­al column.

Besides, although ranks have shrunk, polit­i­cal and envi­ron­men­tal report­ing in Wash­ing­ton is strong, in some cas­es (e.g. Times envi­ron­ment) exceptional.

I am a cra­dle con­ser­va­tion­ist, dat­ing from hikes with folks on Mount Bak­er when I was six. The work at P‑I has allowed me to be defender/advocate of the nat­ur­al North­west, and giv­en me the oppor­tu­ni­ty to share it’s beauties.

It’s a job that, at times, allowed me to make a difference.

I’ve done pre­cious lit­tle loaf­ing since 1973. My leaves of absence were to trek into base of Ever­est and Cho Oyu, and to write book with ex-Inte­ri­or Sec­re­tary Cecil Andrus. Two weeks of read­ing at Bay­ou de Los Ange­les in Baja last Novem­ber cre­at­ed appetite for more.

What will I do? Haven’t decid­ed. At the moment, with COVID-19, I need to stay alive to have a life.

After near­ly half a cen­tu­ry, amaz­ing that Hearst Corp. has put up with me for all these years, and I with it. A good run.

A good run, indeed.

Jour­nal­ist and colum­nist Joel Con­nel­ly takes in a sun­set at Cling­mans Dome, Great Smoky Moun­tains Nation­al Park, in 2017 (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/Northwest Pro­gres­sive Institute)

When Joel retires, there will be no one left at the Seat­tle Post-Intel­li­gencer who worked there dur­ing its print days, as he noted.

The print edi­tion of the P‑I ceased pub­li­ca­tion eleven years ago, and many P‑I jour­nal­ists and edi­tors depart­ed at that time for oth­er projects.

But Joel stayed, and cov­ered three midterm elec­tion cycles, two pres­i­den­tial elec­tion cycles, and six local elec­tion cycles for the P‑I’s online-only incarnation.

What a great gift to our region that was.

He is now pro­vid­ing cov­er­age of a third pres­i­den­tial elec­tion cycle since the P‑I went online-only — one tru­ly unlike any oth­er we’ve ever seen.

There are few peo­ple who know more Pacif­ic North­west polit­i­cal lore than Joel Con­nel­ly. He is an excep­tion­al sto­ry­teller in addi­tion to being an exem­plary jour­nal­ist. He can enchant a room with sto­ries of great hikes or spark great mer­ri­ment by telling tales of hilar­i­ous news­pa­per typos and oth­er news indus­try bloopers.

One of the rea­sons Joel is such an effec­tive and trea­sured jour­nal­ist is that he always keeps his ear to the ground and asks peo­ple: “Whad­daya hear?”

I don’t know any­one who prac­tices the craft better.

He would rather inter­view some­one for a sto­ry than run a quote from a press release. He would rather observe an elect­ed offi­cial at work in the com­mu­ni­ty than at a staged, tight­ly-con­trolled press con­fer­ence. And he would rather devel­op his own angle for a news item, using his lengthy rolodex, than fol­low the herd.

When­ev­er pos­si­ble, Joel turns to young peo­ple for his sto­ries and columns, fea­tur­ing their work and let­ting their voic­es be heard. He is a great friend and ally to my gen­er­a­tion, the mil­len­ni­al gen­er­a­tion, and the gen­er­a­tion com­ing after it.

Though Joel’s time as a Hearst employ­ee will soon be com­ing to an end, I hope and expect that he will con­tin­ue to write columns from time to time. Our region can still ben­e­fit from his wis­dom, even after he retires from the P‑I.

Con­grat­u­la­tions, Joel, and thank you for every­thing. The staff, board, and advi­so­ry coun­cil of the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute deeply appre­ci­ate you.