Farewell to a friend

One of the behind-the-scenes facets that make a newspaper like the Hungry Horse News work is cooperation with other weeklies in the state.

The weeklies of Montana are a special group. We often work together to bring you stories and photos that are important to you. It's an unofficial, but important teamwork of personalities that makes this possible.

This week our team mourns one of its players. Roger Morris, the editor and publisher of The Western News died last Thursday from cancer. He was 54. He was too young. He was one of the good guys. Our team won't be the same.

Here at the Horse, getting a phone call from Roger was a pleasure. He'd ask for us to take a photo for him if we could (usually sports) and then we'd shoot the breeze about the latest hike we'd been on or the story we'd wrote or the latest piece of equipment we just had to have.

Before you knew it an hour had gone by, though it never felt that way. Such are the conversations among friends. Those conversations won't soon be forgotten.

Goodbye, Roger. We'll miss you.