Jack Hartzman

A service message with the initials JH generally caused a sharp increase in blood pressure, a burst of bad language, followed by the grudging admission that the old b&**$rd was right again, your mangled nightlead needed some serious re-writing. I’m not ashamed to say I received plenty such service messages from Jack when labouring in the field. He had an uncanny knack of getting right to the heart of the story you were trying, not very successfully, to tell. His messages were always concise, to the point, and - once you got over your initial fury - helpful. You wrote a better story. The news file looked good. Jack had done his job. He was a brilliant editor. ■