Glory Weisberg, the tiny woman who wields a big pen when writing about the movers, shakers and philanthropists in and around Greenwood Village for The Villager newspaper, abruptly retired. Here are her answers and observations in a Q&A:
Me: How long did you work there?
Glory: 30 years
Me: How did you get that job?
G: I hired a career counselor to help me sort out what I wanted to do for the second half of my life. After a battery of interest tests she told me to “Go write.” But I replied, “It doesn’t pay very well.” But she said I should do what I love to do, which is to write. So I opened the Yellow Pages and found a listing for The Villager, a match made in heaven as I wanted to stay out of downtown Denver to avoid air quality problems due to my lifelong asthma.
I covered city council meetings, school board meetings and wrote front page stories. Then Bob Sweeney named my column, GloryUs Goings On and it took off from there. This past year I attended, photographed and reported on 80 events!
Me: What did you like most/least about it?
G: Most: the writing and getting to know so many gracious philanthropic people. I gained a lot of respect for this community, Penny, living out here with our subscribers. FYI, I never liked the title of Society Editor. It has a snobbish connotation so unlike what I did. My definition of “society” includes everyone who participates in their community. We are all members of society.
What I liked the least: the often seven days a week every week on the job, including most Sundays spent writing up and editing my photos, the week’s luncheons and dinners, weekly Charity Calendar, the long hours dealing with email, snail mail, phone calls, etc., those 12-hour days that swallowed up my private life. In all those years I never missed a single deadline.
Me: What was your mission/point of view with the column?
G: Giving nonprofits a voice, drawing in more supporters for them with their mission statements and the way they are devoted to their causes.
Me: Why retire now?
G: I’m 73 and realized that being on my feet for at least 90 minutes, photographing honorees and committee chairs and members during reception/silent auction hours, then having dinner with up to 1,400 people in cold ballrooms, then listening to the nonprofit event program for another several hours was getting harder for me and for (husband) Dave as well. Then I was always on deadline to write up the event, download my photos and annotate each the following day and the whole scope of the job got to be too much for me. Emails were another several hours a day. Let us not forget postal mail that comes (and will continue coming for many months) also requires time.
This was initially supposed to be a part-time position. I would have loved it going back to that l but at this age, it’s time to move on.
Me: What will you do with your “spare” time?
G: Dr. Frank Sargent asked me to join his Englewood Rotary group last October, I did and I just love this group. I am also looking forward to hanging out at Greenwood Health Club during Bronco games, having more time for our own nonprofit interests such as Cancer League of Colorado and Families First and helping where we can be of use to the community. We have seven grandchildren here and in San Diego and we will now have more time to spend with them.
Me: What would you like to say to your loyal readers?
G: I will miss covering your fundraisers, spotlighting those whose dedicated efforts raise millions of dollars each year, providing for the community what taxes alone can’t and yet need. “You light up my life,” as Debbie Boone sang, and I am staying right here in the heart of Arapahoe County.
And as Bob Hope sang, “Thanks for the Memories.”
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