Passings: Paul Jenkins, longtime Alaska journalist, who went through the Great Alaska Newspaper War

Conservative journalist Paul Jenkins, who went from being an Associated Press reporter to becoming managing editor of the Anchorage Times, an editor of the Voice of the Times, editor of the Anchorage Daily Planet and finally a columnist at the Anchorage Daily News, has died. That is according to his former longtime colleague Robert Dillon, who announced it on Facebook. The announcement was corroborated by a family member.

Jenkins was at the Anchorage Times during the intense newspaper war between the conservative Times and the liberal Anchorage Daily News. The Times eventually lost that war and Jenkins became the editor of a page temporarily dedicated to the Times‘ conservative opinions, called Voice of the Times, which used to be published in the Anchorage Daily News as part of an agreement between the papers, when the Times folded in 1992.

In December, Howard Weaver, former editor of the Anchorage Daily News during the newspaper war, also died. Like Jenkins, he was in his mid-70s.

Jenkins, named for his father, was a quiet man who kept his personal life to himself, but wrote a eulogy for his own father in 2015 that revealed much about himself as a man, and also showed what elegance he possessed as a writer:

“Fathers make men. Mothers polish them, smooth the rough edges, make them human — but fathers make them. They are our first role models, the guys we emulate — until, as teens, we decide they are stupid — the guys who imprint upon us, in ways good and bad, a roadmap for our lives. Men love their mothers, but spend their lives trying to win their fathers’ approval,” he wrote.

“Mine was perhaps the proudest, hardest man I have known. He knew the Depression’s hunger, the Dust Bowl’s calamity. He lived a life of personal honor. He would never lie. Never cheat. Never take advantage. There was right; there was wrong. He was an absolute stickler for personal responsibility and accountability, grim death on tardiness. It was the military in him, I suppose. ‘3 p.m. does not mean 3:01,’ he would growl. ‘It means 2:55.'”

Rep. Dan Saddler, responding to the news on Facebook, wrote, “Just heard this sad news. When I first encountered Paul he was the big, gruff, unapproachable AP reporter. Then he was the big, gruff Times ME with a cynical sense of humor and a passion for the Times-News war. Then he was the cut-through-the-BS editorial writer for Voice of the Times, and later on the political blogs. Then, he was the retired guy at the local gym, increasingly less big, but always just as gruff, and incisive, and funny. Damn, Paul was one of the good ones. It hurts to hear he’s gone.”

Jenkins was in his mid-70s and lived in Eagle River. Must Read Alaska has no further details about his passing at this time. This story may be updated, as details become known.

“I was honored to have him as a friend and editor of the Anchorage Daily Planet. He was everything a journalist and opinion writer should be. His license plate said it better than I could, ’30,'” said Mike Porcaro, former publisher of the Daily Planet.

Read some of Jenkins’ opinion essays at MuckRack.com.