Illinois Valley News

Bob Rodriguez (Photo by Michelle Binker, I.V. News )

As a pre-teenager in San Diego County, Bob Rodriguez“s introduction to the newspaper business consisted of delivering the Chula Vista Star News twice weekly from his bicycle.

Rodriguez, who has published Illinois Valley News since February 1986 with his wife, Jan, already was moving toward a career in the printed word by the time he began his delivery route in 1954. While in the sixth grade, he started a school newsletter for students at the National City elementary school he attended.

But now, after spending most of his life in the newspaper industry, including nearly 25 years at Illinois Valley News, Rodriguez and his wife are completely retiring, and have sold the weekly community newspaper to its new publisher, Dan Mancuso.

At close to 67 years old, Rodriguez has come a long way since his days as a 19-year-old copy boy at the former San Diego Evening Tribune. He started there in 1963, and spent his days doing “whatever they told us to do.“

Duties included cutting copy in the wire room filled with news agency teletypes, cleaning glue pots, sharpening pencils, and being a “gofer“.

“I got to see every part of the process of producing a daily paper,“ said the veteran journalist.

During his nine months as a copy boy, Rodriguez began writing stories for the publication“s youth page and covering water sports including surfing, waterskiing, power boat and sailboat races, and Scuba diving. His work so impressed the paper“s management that he was entered into an editorial training program, where as a cub reporter, he got to accompany veteran reporters on beats.

That stint led to shifts as a general assignment reporter in the Tribune dayside and nightside city room.

“I got to see a lot of interesting stories on the 2 to 10:30 p.m. shift, more so than during the day,“ Rodriguez related. For nearly two years, he covered a wide range of assignments.

After working from the main office in Downtown San Diego he helped open the Tribune“s then-new bureau in Escondido. Subsequently he covered many communities as a bureau reporter/photographer in that capacity. Besides the Escondido bureau he also worked at various times from the bureaus in Oceanside, La Mesa and Chula Vista.

In 1969, Rodriguez began working for NCR Corp.“s Data Processing Division in Rancho Bernardo, some 30 miles south of Downtown San Diego. His duties included internal and external printed communications, and community relations.

“It was a pretty interesting job,“ he said. “But I got tired of it after eight years.“

Even while working for NCR, Rodriguez said that he was writing stories and columns and taking photographs for smaller weekly publications in the northern part of the county.

“I couldn“t help myself,“ he explained.

The next phase of his career took him to the former Escondido Times-Advocate. At the time, it was the second-largest daily newspaper in the county. That publication has since become the North County Times.

Between 1976 and 1979, Rodriguez advanced from reporter/photographer to assistant city editor to news editor.

Late in 1979, Rodriguez and his wife, with their three children, two dogs and two cats, left Southern California and arrived in Brookings, Ore. on the coast.

Rodriguez began working at the Curry Coastal Pilot on Labor Day as news editor, then took over a year later as publisher and editor when co-owners Dick & Polly Keusink sold the paper to Western Communications Inc. of Bend.

During his eight years at the Pilot, Bob & Jan Rodriguez became friends with Bob & Jan Grant, who were the publishers of Illinois Valley News. One day, Rodriguez received a call from Bob Grant stating that he was quite ill and wanted to sell the paper to him.

Rodriguez said that through the use of “creative financing,“ they were able to make a deal.

Fast forward to the end of 2008, when Rodriguez began minimizing his role as publisher of I.V. News before becoming “semi-retired“ in January 2009. That September, he and Jan moved to Lovell, Wyo. with their four cats (now five).

“I had to get away from the area because living so close, I was always finding a reason to come down to the office,“ Rodriguez said. “And we like small towns with wide-open spaces.“

Throughout his career, Rodriguez has witnessed many changes in the newspaper industry. He recalls the times of hot lead Linotype machines; and equipment that used light-sensitive paper for copy. Then came Apple computers, followed by PCs.

The past several years have led many to question the future of the newspaper industry. Rodriguez maintains that it will continue to exist in some form or another.

“I think that there will always be the need for the printed word on a piece of paper,“ he stated.

Bob & Jan Rodriguez have published I.V. News longer than anyone else has in the publication“s 73-year history. In his role as publisher, Rodriguez sat on the Illinois Valley Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, and even spent two and a half years as president. He started the auction that the chamber now holds annually.

He has an associate of arts degree in journalism from Southwestern Community College in Chula Vista, where he met Jan. It“s also where he discovered journalism under a “fluke of circumstance.“

While looking for afternoon and evening classes that would fit his schedule, Rodriguez found a journalism class. Its sole purpose was to produce the college newspaper. He was the first male to hold the editor-in-chief position, and won an award as “outstanding journalist“ upon graduation.

Other accolades include a 1977 award from Sigma Delta Chi Professional Journalistic Society for best spot news photo of the year, published in the Times-Advocate. SDX later honored Rodriguez for best humor column for a piece that appeared in the Penasquitos News.

And he“s won awards from the North San Diego County Press Club, and National Newspaper Association for writing and photography.

Now that he is completely retired, Rodriguez said that he and Jan plan to spend more time visiting grandchildren and doing some light traveling.

“It“s time for us to do something that doesn“t involve running a business,“ he said. “We love the valley, but you have to move on when it“s time.“

Jan has been by Bob“s side not only for the almost 25 years that they ran I.V. News: The couple will celebrate their 45th year wedding anniversary in November.

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