Published: August 16, 2008 09:27 pm      

Longtime reporter remembered

‘First-class curmudgeon with a very big heart’

Tom Searls, a balding, paunchy news hound with a strong taste for smoke and alcohol, seemed to emerge from one of those old black-and-white Hollywood films one occasionally catches on Turner Classic Movies network, a hard-hitting throwback to a less complicated era of journalism.

All he needed was a Fedora with “press” stuck in the hat band.

Many a public official cringed when he lumbered into their path.

Searls fired questions at point blank and the longtime political and government reporter for The Charleston Gazette often erupted into a quarrel if he didn’t like the answers or the attitude.

In print, however, he ignored his personal opinions — a testimony to his neutrality that even those with whom he verbally sparred credited Searls in reaction to his sudden death Thursday. Searls was 54.

“Tom was a gruff, old-school reporter who held strong political beliefs and fiercely loved the state in which he was born and worked,” reflected Gary Abernathy, a Republican consultant who had little in common, if anything, ideologically with the reporter.

“He was also immensely likable and could tell story after story of his various exploits in the newspaper business and the run-ins he had with those he covered.”

Perhaps no one produced an epithet more telling than Stacey Ruckle, communications director for the House of Delegates who attended news events with Searls and interacted with him as a onetime colleague.

“Tom was a first-class curmudgeon with a very big heart,” she said Friday. “He loved a good political argument and telling stories, and he had quite a good memory. Even when he was trying to give me a hard time — and he did work at that on occasion — I enjoyed talking to him.”

A Marmet native immensely proud of his degree at Marshall University, where he was student body president, Searls was a reporter on two occasions in Beckley, and also worked for newspapers in Morgantown, Bluefield and Welch.

One stop along his colorful career found him manning the Morgantown bureau for United Press International, where he quickly earned a reputation as a reporter who relentlessly pursued leads until he nailed down all the facts — tackling any assignment, in fact, the main office in Charleston dished out.

“Tom was a very good reporter — excellent,” recalled Dan Hose of Charleston, a former UPI bureau manager and sports editor in West Virginia. “He knew how to ask the right questions. He had a way of getting information without being intimidating. Just a good ol’ boy. He did it in a subtle way. He liked the big crime stories. He was good on writing crime stories.”

Almost universally, Searls was considered a ghost from the old days of journalism, when reporters eyed every source with skepticism and prowled the bars in search of leads.

“Tom Searls was fearless, witty and extremely hard to dislike,” Register-Herald features editor Audrey Stanton observed.

In a summer internship at The Gazette, she often toiled alongside him, picking up tips that normally aren’t heard in a classroom.

“He showed me a more practical set of reporting skills, those that journalism professors rarely mention and editors often fail to emphasize — such as the value of cynicism and the benefit of spending time in a bar,” Stanton said.

“No one seemed a stranger to Tom — not in Charleston, not in Beckley and not in Bluefield, where our paths crossed again a decade after that internship. We were covering the same trial for two different news outlets and I overheard Tom ask a subject a rather rude question, just for kicks. He saw my jaw hit the floor in disbelief, and he laughed at me — or, more likely, he laughed at his own audacity. Then he bought me lunch. He was like that — a smart aleck with a sweet side.”

Register-Herald managing editor Dawn Dayton reflected on the revolving door nature in the newspaper business and how Searls was one of those workers impossible to forget while others were just part of a passing parade.

“I can’t even begin to count the number of reporters and other newsroom personnel who have come through these doors since I started here in 1978,” Dayton said.

“I’m sure I couldn’t put names with most of the faces from the early years. But that can’t be said of Tom. He first hit Beckley in the late 1970s and left quite an impression. Most of the stories I could tell about Tom probably can’t be printed in the newspaper. I will say that he never failed to leave us laughing. He was always up to some sort of hijinks that left everyone in stitches. That is what I’ll remember about Tom.”

Condolences poured in from West Virginia’s political circles.

“I was heartbroken to learn of the loss of Tom Searls, one of the Mountain State’s greatest reporters,” Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., said.

“When covering a story, Tom always worked from the trenches, never from the gutter. He truly loved West Virginia and loved covering West Virginia politics. The campaign season just won’t be the same without him. My prayers are with the Searls family and his friends and co-workers at The Charleston Gazette as they deal with this sudden and tragic loss.”

At times, Senate Majority Whip Billy Wayne Bailey, D-Wyoming, clashed with the reporter.

“He and I had some heated discussions,” Bailey said. “You couldn’t always agree with Tom, but he reported the news and he didn’t put a slant on it.”

Like others who knew him, state Democratic Chairman Nick Casey was surprised by the veteran newsman’s sudden death.

“Tom was like most of us — he probably needed to eat a little less and smoke a few less cigarettes and have a little less fun,” Casey said.

“I liked Tom. He was rough and gruff and nice and sweet all in one big package. He was always fair and square. I respected him for that, even when he and I had a different way about something. He was a very fair reporter. He asked the real hard questions.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com