Clinton Howard Swindle: Difference between revisions
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Attending Hamilton High School and playing on the Bulldogs football and basketball teams, Howard Swindle would work weekends at Howard Shipman's ranch in Indian Gap. Though he looked at Howard Shipman as a stern and stingy man, he would later describe working on the ranch as some of the best years of his life, and was promised along with his brother, Jimmy Swindle, that they would split the land after his uncle. |
Attending Hamilton High School and playing on the Bulldogs football and basketball teams, Howard Swindle would work weekends at Howard Shipman's ranch in Indian Gap. Though he looked at Howard Shipman as a stern and stingy man, he would later describe working on the ranch as some of the best years of his life, and was promised along with his brother, Jimmy Swindle, that they would split the land after his uncle. |
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Told it was not worth it to go to college by a high school counselor, Howard Swindle was later accepted into the [[University of North Texas]], and studied journalism. Shortly after graduation from UNT (1968), he worked for a short time at the ''[[Lubbock Avalanche-Journal]]''. |
Told it was not worth it to go to college by a high school counselor, Howard Swindle was later accepted into the [[University of North Texas]], and studied journalism. Shortly after graduation from UNT (1968), he worked for a short time at the ''[[Lubbock Avalanche-Journal]]''. |
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==Journalistic Mentor== |
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Howard Swindle is credited by numerous former employees as possessing the superb skills of both mentor and editor, showing an uncanny ability to teach, encourage and inspire young journalists all at the same time, and convey to them the passion of reporting and the craft of writing he had learned first hand at the storied and rollicking (long defunct) Fort Worth Press. |
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It has been said the Press is a place where good writers have come and gone, and the others have joined the scenery. Swindle is one great one who moved on, and who carried with him the badge of honor, in his opinion, of having toiled in the Press city room on the watch of Delbert Willis, the one-legged city editor who periodically took a leave of absence to hunt for the Jap who got him in World War II, and who ultimately found the man and featured him in a front page article. |
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Shortly after beginning his stint as Lubbock Avalanche-Journal City Editor, Swindle recruited and presided over a team of young reporters whose careers blossomed under his care. Many of these young journalists would soon leap frog from the A-J to major assignments nationwide and become notable writers in their own rights. Included in the 'crop' of former Swindle Lubbock understudies were the late Sam Attlesey, prize winning reporter for the Dallas Morning News; Mel Tittle, former longtime editor at the Lubbock newspaper; Celeste Loucks Pennington, accomplished feature writer for the Southern Baptist Convention Home Missions Board; Worth S. Wren, former Agricultural and Business Writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram; and many others. |
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==Vietnam== |
==Vietnam== |
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Revision as of 02:16, 28 April 2010
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Clinton Howard Swindle (November 20, 1945- June 9, 2004), also known in his writing as Howard Swindle, was an accomplished investigative journalist and editor for The Dallas Morning News and an author of six books.
Early life
Clinton Howard Swindle was born in Houston, TX on November 20, 1945. His father, Clinton Swindle, was an abusive alcoholic, and is alluded to in Howard Swindle's writing as to beating his mother, Woodye while drunk. Many of his early childhood memories in Houston, up until about 13 years old, involve his father passing out drunk returning home. Woodye and the early-teenage Howard Swindle left Clinton by moving to Hamilton, TX, as one of Woodye's brothers, Howard Shipman, owned a ranch in the nearby ranching town of Indian Gap, TX. Clinton Swindle would later die a homeless alcoholic in Houston. Attending Hamilton High School and playing on the Bulldogs football and basketball teams, Howard Swindle would work weekends at Howard Shipman's ranch in Indian Gap. Though he looked at Howard Shipman as a stern and stingy man, he would later describe working on the ranch as some of the best years of his life, and was promised along with his brother, Jimmy Swindle, that they would split the land after his uncle. Told it was not worth it to go to college by a high school counselor, Howard Swindle was later accepted into the University of North Texas, and studied journalism. Shortly after graduation from UNT (1968), he worked for a short time at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
Journalistic Mentor
Howard Swindle is credited by numerous former employees as possessing the superb skills of both mentor and editor, showing an uncanny ability to teach, encourage and inspire young journalists all at the same time, and convey to them the passion of reporting and the craft of writing he had learned first hand at the storied and rollicking (long defunct) Fort Worth Press.
It has been said the Press is a place where good writers have come and gone, and the others have joined the scenery. Swindle is one great one who moved on, and who carried with him the badge of honor, in his opinion, of having toiled in the Press city room on the watch of Delbert Willis, the one-legged city editor who periodically took a leave of absence to hunt for the Jap who got him in World War II, and who ultimately found the man and featured him in a front page article.
Shortly after beginning his stint as Lubbock Avalanche-Journal City Editor, Swindle recruited and presided over a team of young reporters whose careers blossomed under his care. Many of these young journalists would soon leap frog from the A-J to major assignments nationwide and become notable writers in their own rights. Included in the 'crop' of former Swindle Lubbock understudies were the late Sam Attlesey, prize winning reporter for the Dallas Morning News; Mel Tittle, former longtime editor at the Lubbock newspaper; Celeste Loucks Pennington, accomplished feature writer for the Southern Baptist Convention Home Missions Board; Worth S. Wren, former Agricultural and Business Writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram; and many others.
Vietnam
Vietnam definitely impacted Howard Swindle, and even his writing. His first book, Once A Hero was about a helicopter pilot in Vietnam who robbed banks using helicopters. Told by his brother Jimmy Swindle that Howard would probably soon be drafted, Howard Swindle enlisted in the United States Navy in 1968, hoping not to be drafted into the Army or Marines, as the casualty rates were rising in the overseas conflict. Awarded Honorman of his basic training company, Howard Swindle went to a signal intelligence school at Corey Field in Pensacola, FL, and was later assigned to the USS Oklahoma City, a cruiser patrolling the Gulf of Tonkin in North Vietnam. One of his later stories involved receiving a message from President Nixon, to give to the Commander of the Seventh Fleet before Operation Moneypenny, or the mining of Haiphong Harbor. After serving a longer-than-usual tour of 14 months, Howard Swindle was honorably discharged from the Navy, and returned to Dallas, where he got a job at The Dallas Times Herald, which he lost in the mid-70s over a dispute with an editor over a news story.
Books and Awards
Once A Hero, Dileberate Indifference, Trespasses, America's Condemned - (with Dan Malone), Jitter Joint, - later made into the movie Eye See You or Detox, Doin' Dirty. Howard Swindle was also Edgar-nominated, and received three Pulitzer Prizes for The Dallas Morning News, among many other numerous awards.
Death
It was discovered in late December 1998 that Howard Swindle had esophageal cancer, and he underwent surgery in January 1999. After his surgery, he lost a substantial amount of weight that he never regained with chemotherapy. After a lengthy recovery, it was discovered three years later in 2002 that he had a small tumor in his lung, which was taken out without trouble. In December 2003, he was again diagnosed with lung cancer, though they could not operate with the amount of scar tissue from the previous operation. Undergoing an experimental drug program in San Antonio, in April he started to decline, and moved in with family friends in Stephenville, TX, where he later died on June 9, 2004.