RIP Jeff Carlton

[User 4332]

More sad news out of Greensboro. Wasn't sure which board to put this on.

http://blog.news-record.com/staff/jrblog/2008/02/jeff_carlton_ri.shtml

Jeff Carlton, RIP

Our friend and colleague Jeff Carlton died today after a long and valiant fight with brain cancer.

Jeff was first diagnosed several years ago and went through surgery. He recovered and returned to work covering sports. The cancer returned and he's been battling it for months. He carried this horrible burden with grace. I never saw him down in the dumps. In fact, he was planning a bright future. Last Friday, we talked for an hour about his interest in becoming assistant sports editor. He was passionate and eager to lead the change in sports.

Two days later, though, he was admitted to the hospital and never left.

Jeff had been a copy editor and reporter here for 11 years, much of the time covering high school sports. He was a heckuva writer, broke his share of stories and won his share of awards. But his journalistic legacy -- one of his legacies, I guess -- is that he earned the trust and respect of coaches and players. He treated people fairly and got it right.

For us here, we lost a dear friend.

I hope others feel free to leave thoughts and memories here.

 

[Moderator1]

****.
Interviewed him for a job. Did great work and a great job in the interview. Was a finalist. Called me to withdraw. Said the cancer had come back and he had to deal with that.
****. I meant to follow up with him and never did.
****.

This saddens me more than anything has recently.

 

[Moderator1]

Also going to move to journalism board.

 

[NCScrub]

Didn't know Jeff quite as well as some others in the area, but knew him as a great guy. Nothing but positives. Will always remember the fish bowls in Dayton during the 2006 tourney. Keep his family and friends in your prayers. A lot of people in the biz lost a good friend.

 

[John Newsom]

More on Jeff from a local Sports site:

http://www.greensborosports.com/2008/02/21/greensboro-sports-loses-a-good-friendjeff-carlton-dies-this-morning/

"Nothing but positives" indeed.

 

[Appgrad05]

Wow. Jeff was a heck of a guy and a real workhorse.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

Never met the guy but I read his stuff when I was in Danville. Good writer, and from people I know and respect, a good guy too.

 

[friend of a friend]

RIP.

My thoughts go to his family and friends.

 

[Wonderlic]

This is terribly sad news. :-[

All my best to his family, friends and co-workers.

Rest in peace, Jeff.

 

[Smartwriter]

Jeff helped get me started in newspapers by giving me my first two stories in college.
He also gave me a quick course in keeping stats.
He was certainly one of the good guys in the business.

 

[Hustle]

Five years or so ago, I had one of the most fun weekends of my life with Jeff.

He was up our way to celebrate at a bachelor party for a friend of ours, former BA writer Lacy Lusk. The weekend was a baseball road trip.

We had several others join us for a Saturday afternoon game at Camden Yards for O's-Blue Jays. My uncle was kind enough to hook us up excellent seats - two sections to the right of being directly behind home plate, about 10 rows up. I caught a foul ball that game.

Most of the group headed back to DC after the O's games; Lacy, Jeff and I were left to head north to Aberdeen; I believe they played Auburn that night. We waited out a rain delay, somehow got great seats again (front row down the 3B line) and chuckled at the reliever throwing an 86 mph 'heater' with no movement. But what I remember most was us reading - and laughing our asses off - at the free weekly we had picked up, particularly the crime log. There was a long story about some dispute between area residents that - forgive me for not remembering the details - involved a slab of meat at the center of the dispute with some guy getting threatened with a tire iron. Funny enough, no? It gets better.

Whoever the reporter was took the police report as gospel, apparently. One of the quotes from an eyewitness was something like, "That's the man! That's the man from 15 Evergreen Street" or wherever the incident took place. Because someone in their excitement would yell out the exact address... we howled over that all night.

We stayed at some crappy motel and got up early the next morning for the drive to Reading, Pa. to see the R-Phils and Akron. We had crappy left-field tickets this time, made only more tolerable by the fact that I (not so much Jeff and Lacy) was steps from the Yuengling stand, to which I made several trips. We got bored with the seats and decided to check out the rest of the place.

Eventually, we found ourselves in right field at the stadium pavilion, which was set up for a party for folks from a local grocery store chain. Except no one was manning the front entrance. So we snuck in and settled down at one of the picnic tables, which had a small TV at one end. We tuned in the big-league Phillies while keeping track of the game we were at. I had just enough beer in me to say screw it, so I took off my shoes and wandered over to the small pool. I stuck my feet in, chatted up one of the moms watching her kids and enjoyed the day. That was one hell of a way to end a weekend.

I hadn't really kept in touch with Jeff, especially after Lacy moved on to bigger things. But I was deeply saddened to check in here this afternoon and find the news of this thread.

RIP, Jeff, and I hope you enjoyed that weekend as much as I did. :'(

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

http://generalsfan.com/2003-04/news/nr-08-26-03.html

RIP.

 

[Stone Cane]

good stuff, hustle

RIP Jeff

 

[BYH]

Wonderful story, Hustle.

RIP and my sympathies to his family and friends.

 

[thebirds]

No enemies. Fourteen years in the busness. How many of us can say that?

 

[Jim Young]

Hi All,

As you can see from post number, I'm new to this forum. I'm supremely grateful to whomever began this thread. It helps me in the grieving process to see that so many people knew and liked Jeff and that there were so many funny stories to tell.

I thought I'd share with you my pitiful attempt at a description of the friendship Jeff and I shared. I posted this on the comments section in the blog entry on the News & Record website as well, but I thought maybe a different group of writers would see it here as well.

Thanks for indulging me.

Jim Young
Greensboro News & Record.

-------

Jeff and I, in many ways, had a real-life version of a Seinfeld friendship. Which is kind of strange, actually, that a “Show about nothing” could be the basis for a relationship that meant so much. But if you knew Jeff, or spent time around the two of us, you’d understand.

His cubicle at the News & Record sat next to mine. In the long stretches between interviews, during the frequent bouts with writer’s block or while trying to avoid tedious transcriptions, we’d engage in conversations that could drift any which way at any moment. Frequently they were about minutiae that would only interest the two of us – what other movies was Yaphet Kotto in besides Live and Let Die? Was there a better villain than James Earl Jones in Conan the Barbarian? Was Sammy Khalifa the only Arab-American to play in the Major Leagues? – but they were always entertaining. They were talks I looked forward to every time I'd walk into the office and he would spin around in his chair to greet me. Our boss, Joe Sirera, used to joke that we could create a radio show just by recording the random conversations Jeff and I had and putting them on the air.

I realize that doesn’t sound like the storybook version of friendship. Jeff never pulled me from a run-away train. I never introduced him to the love of his life. But in the real world – the one that now has a huge, unfillable void in it now that Jeff is gone – this is the true way friendship works: two guys, sitting around, having a conversation about nothing, sharing moments that, when you look back on them, mean everything.

I miss you Jeff. I always will

 

[Moderator1]

Jim, thanks for sharing. Don't be a stranger.
Hell, the scene you describe is what we do a lot around here!

And, again, RIP Jeff.

 

[forever_town]

That was a very meaningful tribute to someone who sounds like he was a great guy. Friendships don't have to have defining moments to be good or great.

Definitely don't be a stranger Jim. And RIP Jeff.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

These moments, where the pure camaraderie rises to the surface, is the greatest aspect of this site, which has plenty of wonderful offerings.

 

[jambalaya]

Had the pleasure of sitting next to Jeff on a few occasions while traveling through the area. Never knew he had cancer, as I'm probably sure it was a private matter. But talking with him you never would have known he was dealing with his own mortality. That takes a real man to do that.