I have a vivid memory of attending a journalism training session sponsored by the Hoosier State Press Association one of the first Decembers I was in this business. I was young and eager to learn.
In front of the room teaching about newspaper design and editing was a small man who whirled from printed page to printed page posted at the front of the room, making huge black marks on them and explaining why they were great — or not anywhere near as good as they should be.
I can still see Ray Moscowitz wielding that Magic Marker and holding court about the responsibility journalists had to do the best for their readers. He was direct, outspoken and passionate about what he said.
Ray, who died last week after a tough 16-month battle with brain cancer, was a newspaperman in every sense of the word. That may seem like an outdated and quaint description in a digital world. I see it as exceedingly honorable. He cared deeply about the communities he worked in, the readers who read the newspapers he was in charge of, and the young people he hired to report and edit in Hoosier cities such as Frankfort, Peru, Wabash and Michigan City as a leader for the old Indiana-based Nixon Newspapers Inc. He was tough and fair, a leader of both cheers and criticism, whichever was warranted.
We had already been friends a long time when he retired to Bloomington a few years ago. He and his wife, Barbara, built a house here. He joined the Bloomington Rotary Club and the Bloomington Press Club. He became a devoted reader of the H-T and frequently critiqued our staff writers in private comments or emails to me, saying things like “that was a hell of a piece” or “that kid’s a hell of a writer.” He made good suggestions about how the H-T could be a better newspaper, always in a constructive way.
I wrote a column in 2013 about his newest book, “A Journalist’s Journey,” which included a collection of 50 columns and stories he wrote during his career.
I described him as a storyteller: “Sit with him for more than about 90 seconds and you’ll find out. He’s an observer of people and has an elephant’s memory for detail, traits that served the self-described ‘news junkie’ well in a newspaper career that spanned 35 years, mostly at small cities in Indiana.”
Since 1998, there has been an award in Indiana journalism named for him. The Ray Moscowitz Award is given to extraordinary journalistic efforts that hold government accountable and tell stories of importance to readers. It’s not given every year; only when a panel of other journalists believe a nominee has truly gone well above and beyond the routine in digging out a story or exposing wrongdoing.
Since 2002, he’s been a member of the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame, which is located at Indiana University. He’s been a champion for the Hall and served as president of its board of directors.
Ray made a positive impact on a lot of Hoosier journalists, including me. It was an honor to know him.