oregonpackfan
07-31-2008, 03:07 PM
I have relearned the lesson that life is short and that we need to value each day as it comes it our lives.
Local sports writer and community sports volunteer Brian Meehan died at 57 from heart complications. He literally spent tens of thousands of hours volunteering as a coach for his kids's teams and as a recreational kids sports board member.
I had the opportunity to meet him and coach against him. He was a fine man who will be missed.
Oregonian sports columnist Brian Meehan dies
Posted by Ken Goe, The Oregonian July 30, 2008 19:15PM
Categories: Breaking News, Sports
Brian Meehan
Sportswriter and columnist Brian Meehan, a storyteller of exceptional range and reach, died Tuesday in Tacoma of complications following heart surgery. He was 57.
Sandra Mims Rowe, editor of The Oregonian, said Meehan was a journalist "with great heart, a native East Coaster imbued with an Oregon soul, a reporter and writer with talent and empathy who could give wings to words."
Meehan's career included stops at the Morristown (N.Y.) Daily Record, the Harrisburg Patriot News, and then the Hartford Courant, where he rose to the rank of assistant managing editor.
• Read several memorable stories by Meehan
• Columnist Steve Duin remembers Meehan
He moved his family west to join The Oregonian in August 1989, at first covering the environment and natural resource issues. Meehan spent his final nine years at The Oregonian as a sportswriter and columnist, already having won numerous reporting and writing awards.
In his off hours, Meehan had a glowing reputation as a coach of youth sports.
Investment counselor Doug Lindsey remembered the way Meehan would stress fundamentals and execution when the two coached a Lake Oswego Babe Ruth team.
"He was stern, but never abusive," Lindsey said "He had some great expressions that became part of our team lingo. He would say,'We're going to be aggressive and run the bases until their springs come out. Then we're going to take over the game.'"
That kind of single-minded attention to detail also served Meehan as a journalist.
He was The Oregonian's lead writer on the Thurston High School shootings in 1998, was part of The Oregonian coverage team on the wreck of the New Carissa off the Oregon coast in 1999 and wrote a series of stories between 1991 and 1997 on the losing battles waged by Kirsten and Katie Frohnmayer with Fanconi amenia. The girls were daughters of University of Oregon president Dave Frohnmayer.
"Brian did a masterful job of respecting the family's privacy while recognizing that it was a matter of public interest," Frohnmayer said. "He approached it with an enormous amount of sensitivity and maturity and because of that was able to capture the innermost thoughts of our family."
Frohnmayer said he was particularly touched by the way Meehan focused as much on the life of his daughter, Kirsten, as her illness and death.
Meehan wrote a 1995 essay on the decline of Northwest salmon that began this way:
"From a red cliff above the desert floor, the biologist peers into a treeless canyon.
"The 1,000-foot-deep gorge reaches south, toward Nevada and the past.
"The South Fork of the Owyhee River foams out of this desert. It rushes past basalt bluffs where golden eagles nest, past grassy draws with mule deer and mustangs. In spring, rafters bob orange boats on its standing waves.
"Today, the river runs only with ghosts."
In 1990, Meehan persuaded four-time NCAA Division II national wrestling champion Dan Russell of Portland State to allow him to chronicle Russell's senior season with a three-part series.
"That was one of the most amazing experiences of my life," said Russell, pastor of the Wellspring Foursquare Church in Battle Ground, Wash. "It was interesting to see what he wrote and see my life in black and white.
"I'd never had anybody go to such depths to get to know me and be able to write about it in such a way that captured me, the good, the bad and the ugly."
Russell said he was persuaded to grant Meehan unfettered access because "Brian really opened himself up to me and to our wrestling team. I spent months with him and his family. I went to Little League games with him. The whole gamut.
"I loved Brian Meehan."
Even after Meehan moved to sports, he was plucked away for special assignments. After 9-11, he returned to his hometown of Rockville Centre, N.Y., a city that includes many who commute to work in Manhattan, to write about the impact of the tragedy.
In 2003, executive editor Peter Bhatia chose Meehan to be one of The Oregonian reporters embedded with U.S. troops for the invasion of Iraq.
"His maturity, clear-headed thinking and ability to tell stories is why we chose him to go to Iraq after the war began," Bhatia said. "Circumstances didn't get him beyond Kuwait, but it is indicative of the extraordinary journalist he was."
While a sportswriter, Meehan helped cover Oregon State's first NCAA baseball championship in 2006.
"Even when he wrote something that was not as positive as you wanted it to be, he would talk to you about it," OSU baseball coach Pat Casey said. "I really respected him, respected what he did and how he did it. I will certainly miss him."
Meehan came to know Herb Brown when the longtime NBA coach was an assistant with the Trail Blazers from 2001 to 2003.
They found they shared a similar background, knew many of the same people, and before long, Brown let down his guard with a member of the media.
When Brown married, Meehan was an invited guest.
"It was a small wedding," Brown said. "Brian was my friend. He was a well-rounded guy. He wasn't just about sports and athletics. He was a very sensitive man, very well-read. I'm devastated."
Brian Thomas Meehan was born May 3, 1951, in Rockville Centre, and graduated in 1973 from Hofstra University, where he played varsity basketball. He married Elissa Eagan in December 1974.
He died Tuesday at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, where he had undergone heart valve replacement surgery on July 23. He slipped into a coma after surgery and never regained consciousness.
In addition to his wife, Elissa, survivors include daughter, Katharine of Tucson; sons Sean of Scappoose, Daniel of Portland; mother, Patricia Meehan of Bloomfield, Conn., brothers, Thomas and James and sister Patricia, all of Connecticut.
Services are planned for Saturday, Aug. 9, at a site to be determined.
Fred Stickel, publisher of The Oregonian, said: We are fortunate to have had him as a colleague."
-- Ken Goe; kengoe@news.oregonian.com
Local sports writer and community sports volunteer Brian Meehan died at 57 from heart complications. He literally spent tens of thousands of hours volunteering as a coach for his kids's teams and as a recreational kids sports board member.
I had the opportunity to meet him and coach against him. He was a fine man who will be missed.
Oregonian sports columnist Brian Meehan dies
Posted by Ken Goe, The Oregonian July 30, 2008 19:15PM
Categories: Breaking News, Sports
Brian Meehan
Sportswriter and columnist Brian Meehan, a storyteller of exceptional range and reach, died Tuesday in Tacoma of complications following heart surgery. He was 57.
Sandra Mims Rowe, editor of The Oregonian, said Meehan was a journalist "with great heart, a native East Coaster imbued with an Oregon soul, a reporter and writer with talent and empathy who could give wings to words."
Meehan's career included stops at the Morristown (N.Y.) Daily Record, the Harrisburg Patriot News, and then the Hartford Courant, where he rose to the rank of assistant managing editor.
• Read several memorable stories by Meehan
• Columnist Steve Duin remembers Meehan
He moved his family west to join The Oregonian in August 1989, at first covering the environment and natural resource issues. Meehan spent his final nine years at The Oregonian as a sportswriter and columnist, already having won numerous reporting and writing awards.
In his off hours, Meehan had a glowing reputation as a coach of youth sports.
Investment counselor Doug Lindsey remembered the way Meehan would stress fundamentals and execution when the two coached a Lake Oswego Babe Ruth team.
"He was stern, but never abusive," Lindsey said "He had some great expressions that became part of our team lingo. He would say,'We're going to be aggressive and run the bases until their springs come out. Then we're going to take over the game.'"
That kind of single-minded attention to detail also served Meehan as a journalist.
He was The Oregonian's lead writer on the Thurston High School shootings in 1998, was part of The Oregonian coverage team on the wreck of the New Carissa off the Oregon coast in 1999 and wrote a series of stories between 1991 and 1997 on the losing battles waged by Kirsten and Katie Frohnmayer with Fanconi amenia. The girls were daughters of University of Oregon president Dave Frohnmayer.
"Brian did a masterful job of respecting the family's privacy while recognizing that it was a matter of public interest," Frohnmayer said. "He approached it with an enormous amount of sensitivity and maturity and because of that was able to capture the innermost thoughts of our family."
Frohnmayer said he was particularly touched by the way Meehan focused as much on the life of his daughter, Kirsten, as her illness and death.
Meehan wrote a 1995 essay on the decline of Northwest salmon that began this way:
"From a red cliff above the desert floor, the biologist peers into a treeless canyon.
"The 1,000-foot-deep gorge reaches south, toward Nevada and the past.
"The South Fork of the Owyhee River foams out of this desert. It rushes past basalt bluffs where golden eagles nest, past grassy draws with mule deer and mustangs. In spring, rafters bob orange boats on its standing waves.
"Today, the river runs only with ghosts."
In 1990, Meehan persuaded four-time NCAA Division II national wrestling champion Dan Russell of Portland State to allow him to chronicle Russell's senior season with a three-part series.
"That was one of the most amazing experiences of my life," said Russell, pastor of the Wellspring Foursquare Church in Battle Ground, Wash. "It was interesting to see what he wrote and see my life in black and white.
"I'd never had anybody go to such depths to get to know me and be able to write about it in such a way that captured me, the good, the bad and the ugly."
Russell said he was persuaded to grant Meehan unfettered access because "Brian really opened himself up to me and to our wrestling team. I spent months with him and his family. I went to Little League games with him. The whole gamut.
"I loved Brian Meehan."
Even after Meehan moved to sports, he was plucked away for special assignments. After 9-11, he returned to his hometown of Rockville Centre, N.Y., a city that includes many who commute to work in Manhattan, to write about the impact of the tragedy.
In 2003, executive editor Peter Bhatia chose Meehan to be one of The Oregonian reporters embedded with U.S. troops for the invasion of Iraq.
"His maturity, clear-headed thinking and ability to tell stories is why we chose him to go to Iraq after the war began," Bhatia said. "Circumstances didn't get him beyond Kuwait, but it is indicative of the extraordinary journalist he was."
While a sportswriter, Meehan helped cover Oregon State's first NCAA baseball championship in 2006.
"Even when he wrote something that was not as positive as you wanted it to be, he would talk to you about it," OSU baseball coach Pat Casey said. "I really respected him, respected what he did and how he did it. I will certainly miss him."
Meehan came to know Herb Brown when the longtime NBA coach was an assistant with the Trail Blazers from 2001 to 2003.
They found they shared a similar background, knew many of the same people, and before long, Brown let down his guard with a member of the media.
When Brown married, Meehan was an invited guest.
"It was a small wedding," Brown said. "Brian was my friend. He was a well-rounded guy. He wasn't just about sports and athletics. He was a very sensitive man, very well-read. I'm devastated."
Brian Thomas Meehan was born May 3, 1951, in Rockville Centre, and graduated in 1973 from Hofstra University, where he played varsity basketball. He married Elissa Eagan in December 1974.
He died Tuesday at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, where he had undergone heart valve replacement surgery on July 23. He slipped into a coma after surgery and never regained consciousness.
In addition to his wife, Elissa, survivors include daughter, Katharine of Tucson; sons Sean of Scappoose, Daniel of Portland; mother, Patricia Meehan of Bloomfield, Conn., brothers, Thomas and James and sister Patricia, all of Connecticut.
Services are planned for Saturday, Aug. 9, at a site to be determined.
Fred Stickel, publisher of The Oregonian, said: We are fortunate to have had him as a colleague."
-- Ken Goe; kengoe@news.oregonian.com