How it began: Program a memorial to editor who embraced diversity

John "Chips" Quinn Jr.

John C. "Chips" Quinn Jr., a young editor who gathered around him a wide range and large amounts of people, laughter and principles, probably would be humbled to know that a newsroom diversity program is named in his memory.

"He wouldn’t have seen himself as the center of attention or a leader, but everyone looked to him to lead," said his brother R.B. Quinn, a teacher and attorney in Tennessee.

Chips Quinn was a newspaper editor and journalist who valued the differences in people. He also was a son, brother and friend. When he died at the age of 34, his family could think of no better way to honor and remember Chips than a program to encourage newsroom diversity.

The Chips Quinn Scholars program began in 1991. Since then more than 950 young journalists of color have been Scholars during daily newspaper newsroom internships.

"Chips accepted all people," R.B. Quinn remembered. "He would take you as you came. He wanted to be accepted as he was, with long hair, different clothes, a unique identity. He understood the need for individual personality. Chips made room for a lot of people."

Longtime journalist and editor John C. Quinn Sr., an advisory trustee of the Freedom Forum, describes his oldest son Chips as a remarkable mix of caring, professional dedication, devotion and a commitment to work --- and play --- hard. Chips gave "substance and style to all the lives that he touched," John Quinn said.

"Out of that tragedy comes hope," he tells the Chips Quinn Scholars. "Hope for tomorrow’s newsroom diversity, hope to keep Chips’ spirit alive …"

As a freshman at Hamilton College, Chips Quinn went back to the family’s home in Rhode Island during a summer break. His father assigned him and younger brother R.B. to paint the house.

Chips’ "to do" list consisted of "Pick out paint, buy the brush, find a ladder," his father recalled. "My list said ‘Paint the house.’"

John Quinn figures it was that experience that convinced Chips that a newsroom internship, at the Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, W.Va., was preferable to working for his father.

The internship had an impact. The following summer, Chips got a job at the Pacific Daily News on Guam, working on the copy desk. He went on to work as a copy editor at the Statesman Journal in Salem, Ore.

He later returned to New England, where he joined the Providence (R.I.) Journal in a part-time role. The job turned out to be more full than part time. Brother R.B. Quinn remembers times when he and Chips would plan a day of canoeing or motorcycle polishing and the phone would ring and Chips would be off to work the evening shift on the copy desk. Eventually, Chips was hired full time and became assistant managing editor.

When his shift was over around 11 p.m., Chips would call R.B. to see if he was up and ready to have a good time. "I’d almost always say I was up. It was too fun to miss out," R.B. said. Chips "enjoyed having fun with other people. He was always orchestrating gatherings.

"He was a great leader in goofing off. There was always an adventure behind it --- greater depth. We’d go out canoeing, and he’d pull out (Piet Hein’s) ‘Grooks’ and read funny poems by a Scandinavian writer.

"He combined the entertainment side of life and camaraderie with the mental stimulation of intellectual challenges. Intellectual curiosity always traveled with him," R.B. said. "He was always having conversations with people. He gathered people around to go to a bar, to argue sports with the bartender. He’d go out to dinner with people from the paper and ask ‘Why aren’t newspapers covering the famine in Africa?’ He figured there was more behind the famine and wound up running a lot of stories about it."

In January 1987, Chips was named top editor of the Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal, where he began to build his staff and establish the newspaper’s mission.

While Chips was editor in Poughkeepsie, his father was editor of USA TODAY. Every evening after their respective front pages were set for the following day, "We would talk about how he played front-page stories and how USA TODAY did and argue about who was right," John Quinn said.

Chips also called his dad about a problem: He recognized the need to get more journalists of color into his newsroom, but his circle of professional friends and acquaintances was largely made up of white journalists. "Where is the network of journalists of color I can plug into?" he asked.

Chips died in an automobile accident in 1990. His parents, John and Loie Quinn, stayed up all that night trying to find a way to respond to the tragedy. They decided on a memorial — an internship/scholarship program to bring young journalists of color into newspaper newsrooms. The program would select the students, nominated by their teachers, and match them with newspapers.

There were enough donations to name six students as the first Chips Quinn Scholars in 1991. In the program’s third year, the Freedom Forum took over funding and administration, increased training at an orientation program and added writing coaches. The classes grew in size each year; classes outside summer were added; and there are now more than 950 college students and graduates who can proudly call themselves Chips Quinn Scholars.

"Common traits of Chips Quinn Scholars I have observed have been their enthusiasm for their work -- and their loyalty to each other and the cause. They are a special breed," said Tom Callinan, editor of The Cincinnati Enquirer "They get what Chips Quinn the man and the editor stood for."

Among other participating papers is Chips’ Poughkeepsie Journal. "The Poughkeepsie paper is a leader in hiring Chips Quinn Scholar interns and has hired three alums for full-time jobs," John Quinn said.

The goal, he tells every new class of Chips Quinn Scholars, is that "someday a Chips Quinn Scholar will call for a job and the editor will say, ‘I’m a Chips Quinn Scholar, too. Get over here.’

"We’re trying to produce that network that Chips was looking for."

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Chips Quinn: A caring editor

Chips Quinn came into his own as an editor when he became the top editor of the Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal.

"Chips was a very creative editor," said Phil Currie, senior vice president/news for Gannett Co., Inc., parent of the Poughkeepsie Journal. "He had lively, fresh ideas for making the newspaper better and for inspiring the staff to try new things."

Derek Osenenko, now executive editor of the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, N.J., told John Quinn that he took a job with Chips because Chips told him: "We’re going to have some fun here." No editor had ever said that to him, Osenenko noted.

Meg Downey, now executive editor of the Poughkeepsie Journal, recalled that the Tawana Brawley case occurred when Chips was editor. (In November 1987, Brawley, a black teenager, said four white men had sexually assaulted her; a grand jury later determined that her story wasn’t credible and threw out the case.)

"There was a lot of racial tension locally, and there were a number of community meetings and rallies about how to address racism in our community. Chips made it his business to personally attend many rallies and forums that were held during those months," Downey said. "He was also instrumental in helping to launch the Enhancing Racial Harmony group at the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-kill. That group is still in existence; it works to address issues dealing with race in our community."

Chips helped the newspaper plan a special report "To be Black in Dutchess County," which received several awards.

"He made the paper much better in the relatively short time he was with us," Currie said of Chips. "He put into motion improvements that helped lead Poughkeepsie a few years later to recognition as a Gold Medal newspaper with Gannett."

In addition to being a leader, Chips was a gifted writer. "When you read his memos, you thought you were reading Yeats instead of bureaucratese," Downey said. "He was inspiring."

Mark Silverman, publisher and editor of The Detroit News and a longtime friend of Chips, said Chips also cared about readers. "Foremost in his mind was finding ways to bring the paper closer to the reader, and he was just very good at it."

In one memo, Chips wrote to his staff:

"Each day we must publish a newspaper that makes us proud, but not so proud that we forget that it is not our newspaper, but our readers’.

"To accomplish that, we must:

• Be fresh.
• Be informative.
• Be inviting.
• Be accurate and fair.
• Be appetizing.
• Be clear.
• Be imaginative.
• Be unselfish.

"Care. Care. Care. Take it and show it."