The Missouri Miner: Editors-in-Chief: Ed Goetemann

Research Project: 100 years of
The Missouri Miner 1915-2015

Est'd. 1915, Fred Grotts, Founder

Ed Goetemann
EIC 1943-1944

This exchange is pieced together from telephone and mail correspondence occurring between February 2007 and the present. Words in brackets have been added for continuity due to this piecing process. -RB

RB: From when to when were you Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner?

EG: [From the Fall of] 1943 to [the] Spring [of] 1944.

RB: What other positions did you hold on the Missouri Miner staff? How were elections held?

EG: [I was also] Sports Editor. [Elections were held] by Staff Officers [and the] Miner Board.

RB: What were the biggest challenges you faced as Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner?

EG: World War II, and the middle of my term due to expenses we had to discontinue publishing the Miner twice a week and resort to a weekly paper as was the custom a few years earlier.

RB: What were your greatest accomplishments as Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner? What issues were most important to you?

EG: [Being] able to be able to publish the paper under war conditions. [We] sometimes had to publish [the] Missouri Miner as part of [The] Rolla New Era--later The Rolla Daily News.

RB: What "big" stories are most memorable to you and why?

EG: No unusual stories stand out after all these years. The war was definitely the main concern of our daily lives.

RB: What effect did major national events (i.e. wars, assassinations, etc.) have on the Missouri Miner's reporting? How did you handle these events?

EG: We tried to not get too involved with [the] war as to our paper. We tried to keep our news seated towards school activities and sporting results.

RB: How significant a role do you feel you and the Missouri Miner played in campus life during your tenure as Editor-in-Chief?

EG: Hopefully we were a good alternative for students to read, and [I] believe they were excited to get the Missouri Miner.

RB: How did your time as Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner help prepare you for life after college? What lessons did you learn?

EG: I really had an ulterior reason to advance to Editor, because I needed the money. I could not go home to work for three months as I did in earlier years. We had no summer vacations due to [the] war. [Working on the paper] helped me be able to schedule and plan my time and actually be a "boss."

RB: What was your staff like at the Miner?

EG: Very good and cooperative.

RB: Who was the newspaper's faculty advisor?

EG: As far as I can remember, we did not have a faculty advisor.

RB: Where was the Missouri Miner's office? What equipment did you use to produce the newspaper every week? If you published at the Rolla Daily News (the local city paper), what was your relationship with Ed/Steve Sowers? If not, where did you publish the paper?

EG: [Our office was in] a small room as part of [the] local paper--on Pine Street. [We used the] Rolla New Era's presses and typesetters. Ed Sowers had just taken over [the] local paper. We were able to have a friendly business relationship with Ed Sowers.

RB: How would you describe your management style?

EG: Friendly.

RB: Describe your relationship with the administration at UMR.

EG: Good. I visited with Dean Curtis Wilson on many occasions.

RB: Describe your relationship with Student Council at UMR.

EG: Friendly and helpful.

RB: Summarize your thoughts and feelings about your time as Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner.

EG: I never planned to get involved in writing or printing a newspaper. I was going to be an Engineer. But I loved my time as Editor and was proud and [am] still proud of my term as Editor-in-Chief. You meet people, i.e. faculty, coaches, etc., that a normal student may not meet.

My Staff

Editor-in-Chief - Ed Goetemann
Managing Editors - Harold Butzer and Carl Finley
Business Manager - Dave Wicker
Circular Manager - Matthew Kerper
Sports Editor - George Burke
Feature Editor - Ed Patterson