An old friend announced his retirement from the newspaper business late last week.
Dan Eakin is the editor of the Silsbee Bee in Southeast Texas.
You may remember Dan from his almost a decade of work here at the News-Record.
Dan turned 86 last month. He has been newspapering since high school.
His last day on the job will be Friday, Aug. 1. His career has been an incredible one.
I was thrilled to honor a friend last year at the Texas Press Association Convention and Trade Show in College Station.
The TPA is the professional trade group for newspapers across the state.
One of the awards they present each year is the “Golden 50” award that recognizes 50 years (or more) of service to the newspaper industry.
I nominated Eakin for the 2024 award and was thrilled when the TPA agreed with my nomination.
Dan surpassed the 50-year mark years ago.
He has logged 70 years in the newspaper business. He is a lifelong newspaper man.
He has been an ordained minister about as long as he has been a newspaperman and has devoted his life to working at community newspapers and preaching at small rural churches— predominately in North and East Texas.
Some of you remember Dan’s more-than-a-decade of service to the Collinsville Bible Baptist Church.
He has performed more than 400 weddings and 300 baptisms during his time as a minister. He is currently the pastor at Woodrow Baptist Church in Silsbee, Texas where he has doubled church attendance and baptized more than a dozen people there.
Dan’s newspaper career is equally as prolific.
I have always been amazed by Dan’s stamina and zeal to keep working. He is more than twice my age and there were times I felt like he was working me into the ground.
He once told me his secret.
“You just have to do something,” he said. “This is a tough business. The work stacks up. Sometimes you get buried in it, but the only way to get it all done is to do something. Anything, but just do something. It really doesn’t matter where you start. Just do something. Always be doing something.”
Dan has it figured out. The key to success is to “do something.”
The key to longevity is to “do something.”
I realize this echoes my message from last week’s column, but so be it.
Though Dan is leaving newspapers, he is not slowing down.
He intends to keep on ‘doing something’ at his church.
I am blessed to have Dan Eakin as a friend. I am proud of his achievement and am humbled to have been the one to present him with the award.
I wish him well in retirement and thank him for the impact he made on my career along the way.
More than anything, his longevity in our business, and the ministry, inspires me to continue to “do something.”
Be like Dan— always do something.
