Shane Fitzgerald

By Luke Graham

Sometimes the hard lessons are the most valuable ones.

That's how the career of Shane Fitzgerald ('86) has gone. Fitzgerald, now the managing editor at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, said he learned a valuable lesson in his senior year of high school in Denver.

Through the year, Fitzgerald had received A's on all of his journalism assignments. The teacher, Don Ridgway, who would later teach at the SJMC, always had a one strict rule; if a name was misspelled, the article automatically got a failing grade.

"I butchered a name on the final and got a B in the class," Fitzgerald said. "I never forgot that lesson. Even though it cost me the A, it was still the best lesson that I've learned."

Fitzgerald has tried to instill that same lesson in every journalist he oversees. He said one of the favorite parts of his job is helping his young staff – the Caller-Times is usually their first or second professional stop – grow into something special.

"I can't say how important it is to learn the language," he said. "Respect grammar and AP style," he said.

Fitzgerald's newsroom broke one of the bigger stories of the year when Katharine Armstrong called her local paper.

Armstrong owns the ranch where Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a friend while on a hunting trip. When Armstrong wanted to go with the story, she called the Caller-Times.

"We really didn't expect it to touch off the firestorm that it did," Fitzgerald said. "We had built up enough credibility in our community that when push came to shove, she came to us. I don't know if you can have a higher compliment than that."

While in school, Fitzgerald noted that Mal Deans, Ron Claxton (MA '75) and Ridgway all gave him the sense that work in daily newspapers could give him a career.

"They helped me with the craft," he said. "I have tried to perfect it and pass it on. What CU gave me prepared me for my future. I sopped everything up from those three men."

Fitzgerald moved on to the Caller-Times after 15 years at the Rocky Mountain News, where he started as a sports clerk and moved up to sports editing positions.

Although Fitzgerald misses Colorado, he said the opportunity in Texas was too good to pass up.

"This is a great opportunity within Scripps Howard to run my own newsroom," he said. "This is a very good paper and a very good situation for me to come into as a journalist. Plus, people who know me know I like to run my own show."

Fitzgerald said that when he was getting into journalism, the landscape was much different; now, journalists must be more multidimensional.

"Think beyond print. Be willing and able to do every part of the job you can," he said. "Just settling to be a reporter in the next five or 10 years won't work. You'll have to multitask."

In his spare time, Fitzgerald said he enjoys going to the beach, playing golf and coaching youth baseball and basketball teams.

He and his wife, Jill, have two sons, Derek, 14, and Ryan, 12. FitzgeraldS@caller.com