Local giant of journalism and sports activities recalled

Larry Berteau is being remembered as an Ashland Tidings sports editor and impassioned radio announcer of nearby sports activities whose Irish “present of gab” by no means left him speechless.
He was additionally a filmmaker, editor of the Tidings and the Springfield News, and proprietor-publisher of the Mountain Times, close to Mount Hood.
Berteau died June 14 after a long infection, in Saint-Brieuc, France, where he changed into living with his wife, Frances. He was 76.
“Larry turned into genuinely larger than existence,” stated Fran. “He could fill a room with funny tales and anecdotes. … He by no means run out of things to say, and high school groups had their video games protected with significant gusto. A landing, defined by using Larry at the radio, may additionally simply as effortlessly had been a Super Bowl second.”
Berteau, the son of an effective wooden union leader, went to Medford colleges and were given his bachelor’s degree in English at the University of Oregon.
As an Air Force officer in climate studies, Berteau turned into connected to the Marine Corps and served in Vietnam. Afterward, he became energetic in Vietnam Veterans Against the War and joined antiwar marches in Washington, D.C., together with the one wherein vets tossed their medals over the White House fence.
He acquired an MFA in creative writing at Florida State University and wrote for the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper.
In San Francisco, Berteau began Pacificon, wherein he produced public hobby movies — and met his English spouse, Frances (Fanny). He later tended bar in Sausalito and dealt blackjack in Reno. They moved to Ashland within the early Nineties. Fran labored as an assistant to Mayor Alan DeBoer.
Berteau loved Scrabble, gardening, playing tennis, golfing at Oak Knoll, fishing for rainbow trout at Hyatt Lake, cultivating his own rose range and coaching Little League. The couple moved to Welches, within the shadow of Mount Hood, in 2008, then in 2015, they moved to France.
Their son Geoff, a graduate of Ashland High, now teaching in Thailand, said, “He introduced poetry into a young man’s lifestyles. As a pedigree journalist, every day he brushed phrases into artwork — all earlier than the 11 a.M. Tidings closing date. I’m thankful his art changed into capable of being shared with such a lot of, as it has incessantly stimulated me. His is a hard act to comply with, however, thanks to his dedication and steering as a father, I experience up for the project. He is deeply overlooked.”
On June 1, in has final editorial as a writer of the Mountain Times, Berteau honored the braveness and sacrifices of allied D-Day squaddies, who beaten Nazism is less than a yr. He wrote, “Nazi Germany waged a battle against everybody who turned into no longer like them. They murdered because of who human beings have been. Nothing extra. And ought to any civilized man or women have the temerity to view brown-shirted, Swastika-emblazoned ‘Blood and Soil’ chanting, Nazi-saluting low-lifes as having some ‘accurate people’ amongst them, needs at a minimal, a humanitarian intervention. Of direction, draft-dodgers are made of lesser stuff.”
John Enders, who preceded Berteau as Tidings editor, stated, “When I became editor, and he worked as sports activities editor, he could frequently give me s— about this or that editorial choice. There was a certain tension between us, as is often the case with two alpha adult males who also happen to be bold and, let’s say, just barely arrogant. After I left the Tidings and he became editor, we noticed every other, possibly at a bar. He leaned into me and said, ‘John, I had no f—ing concept how difficult a job this is.’
“It changed into his way of creating peace, and it worked. Larry turned into a completely decent and correct man, had a large appetite for life, and turned into one helluva newsman. I will pass over him.”
John Kinard, a chum and commercial enterprise professor at Southern Oregon University, stated, “Larry brought a weekly sports activities column referred to as the Mailbag — a sports opinion piece and topical verbal exchange with readers, however, ended up as tons extra. My wife subscribed to the Tidings simply so she may want to read it. Countless young people and parents today have scrapbooks filled along with his sports memories. He additionally has become the neighborhood sports activities color commentator for Grizzly and different events. He is surely the fine sportswriter obtainable. Most folks are mortified of change. Larry welcomed it, encouraged it, sought it. He became the personification of the adage the ‘you handiest go around as soon as.’”
Mail Tribune reproduction editor Troy Here, who labored on the Tidings with Berteau from 1995 to 2003, said, “Larry was an exceptional personal buddy and a fantastic colleague who reputable the hard paintings of the entire Daily Tidings group of workers, from the front-desk receptionist to the newsroom and marketing, again to the pressroom and the folks that added the paper every day. He knew anyone’s call within the constructing. It’s now not unexpected he began as a sportswriter and ended up because of the editor. He continually appeared forward to undertaking new matters. He turned into considered one of my preferred bosses.”