KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter
December 8, 2017
By Dennis Coday
Tom Roberts, who has served the mission and readers of NCR for nearly 24 years, is retiring.
The official record will note that Roberts joined NCR in January 1994 serving as managing editor, editor and editor at large. The simplicity of those words do not convey the true meaning of what Roberts has done for this news organization and for those of us who have had the privilege, honor and pleasure to have worked with him.
Tom’s greatest gift to NCR and what he has shared daily with NCR staff and readers is his love for journalism. He lives journalism as a craft and a vocation. He practiced and honed his skills as a reporter, writer and editor for more than four decades, and he likes nothing better than taking on an apprentice to pass on that craft. He always had time to talk over ideas, offer advice on how to approach a source or how to unclog a writer’s block.
More than the mechanics of journalism, Tom knows and models journalism as a pledge to public service that must be lived with deliberateness and integrity. Many of us are better writers and editors because of Tom’s mentorship and concern. I know too that many of us are better people for having worked with him.
NCR publisher Caitlin Hendel has observed that Tom “led NCR’s editorial coverage during a tumultuous time, for the nation, the world and the Catholic Church.” He joined NCR at the apex the John Paul II papacy, watched its last years and was in Rome for election of Pope Benedict XVI. For the election of Pope Francis, he was in the newsroom in Kansas City so I could be in Rome. Tom had a special love for Central American coverage, and he traveled to Iraq in the late 1990s when its people were suffering under years of economic sanctions. That experience guided NCR’s coverage of the debacle of the 2003 invasion of Iraq that still plagues our nation. Tom led the newsroom through the shock of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He reported and edited more stories about clergy sex abuse than any one person should endure.
“Tom’s steady demeanor and passionate regard for the truth combined to hold institutions accountable and to put the voiceless front and center,” Hendel told me. “That is a legacy we inherit from Tom and pledge to continue.”
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