Steve Forrester

As we read about the demise of newspapers, I remember a generation of printers I observed in my childhood in Pendleton.

Working in the basement of the East Oregonian, they operated Linotypes and a hot metal press that was driven by an impressive flywheel. The smell of molten lead was always in the air down there. So were the cigarettes they smoked.

Watching a journeyman printer operate a Linotype was a wondrous experience — much like watching an organist work the pedals and stops of a pipe organ. A Linotype was a living, breathing thing.

Ken Bue, who died recently at the age of 97, worked for this newspaper for 49 years. He lived through the end of the hot metal era. When that transition from hot to cold type and early computerization happened, many printers elected to leave their craft.

That is why my father was so amazed at Bue, who had mastered the new printing technology and also managed the mainframe computer and the dedicated terminals on reporters’ desks that were in place when I arrived in 1988.

My dad was enormously impressed with Ken. He was fond of saying that he wished he could bottle Ken’s emotional and intellectual capacity that allowed him to grasp and adapt to a new era.

The Daily Astorian went through two major transitions in 1970: from the former Troy Laundry building on Duane Street to the new building on Exchange Street — from a hot metal press to a brand new Goss Suburban photo-offset press.

“The press was brand new, the building was brand new,” Bue reminisced to our reporter Katie Wilson (now Frankowicz) in 2010. “It was a very exciting time for us, and — how do I say this? — it was also a hard time for us because we had to learn the new techniques. But it was a very rewarding time too, because of the printing we could do.”

Because of Ken’s meticulous maintenance of that press over decades, it produced high quality, full-color printing well past its prime. While giving tours of our pressroom to visitors in the 2000s, I referred to that press as “our geriatric.”

“Ken was very proactive in making sure that the press was always well maintained and kept clean!” said our pressroom supervisor, Jim Stanovich. “He had the Goss service person come several times a year to keep up on any small repairs that were needed to make sure they didn’t become larger problems.”

During the Great Recession, when we acquired a lightly used press out of the bankruptcy reorganization of the Chicago Sun-Times, Stanovich invited his former boss to return to observe its installation.

Despite the daily production challenges he faced, Bue’s temperament was remarkably even-keeled. “He was always in a good mood, which made life so much better,” said former pressman Markku Tila. “Ken was one of those rare people that no matter what, he was a joy to be around!”