This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
It was spring 1966, when a smug little bureaucrat at Skyline High looked me in the eye with a Snidely Whiplash sneer and said, "Give me one good reason why I should let you graduate."
"Uh," I uttered. "I dunno."
I had the credits, barely. But in those days I had an attention-deficit problem that led to a more serious sluffing problem. My attendance record was dismal.
He let me graduate but assured me I was a loser.
I bring that up because on Wednesday at 7 p.m., The Salt Lake Tribune is hosting "An Evening with Paul Rolly" at the Gallivan Center.
I will be interviewed by our multimedia expert, Jennifer Napier-Pearce, and I plan to tell a few anecdotes about my experiences during a 42-year career in journalism. After that, I will be viciously attacked by a who's who of Utah's right wing: Eagle Forum President Gayle Ruzicka, state Sen. Curt Bramble and Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes — all of whom have told me they can't wait to fry me. I have to confess, that makes me a little nervous.
Thankfully, though, my editor scrapped his early inclination of having me in a dunking booth.
I'll be more gently roasted, I hope, by former Salt Lake County Council member Randy Horiuchi, Democratic state Sen. Jim Dabakis and my column partner for 13 years, JoAnn Jacobsen-Wells.
The Rolly roast is one of a number of events undertaken by Tribune brass to engage with the community, let folks get a better glimpse of who we are at the paper and, hopefully, generate interest in our new Tribune membership program.
I'm told that about 400 people already have reserved premium seating for the free event, although it probably would have been a lot more if our editor and publisher, Terry Orme, would have stuck with that dunking booth.
The fact that The Tribune brain trust decided I would be interesting enough to draw a crowd to a summer event promoting the paper and its online edition has nothing to do with my own talents. The Skyline bureaucrat had a point.
Somehow, through a series of decisions — by other people — that were out of my control, I have my picture in The Tribune alongside my column four days a week and, for some reason, that makes one a celebrity.
I was comfortable in my relative obscurity as a typical Tribune reporter who had covered most of the paper's beats, especially business, government and politics, when our then-newly minted editor, James E. "Jay" Shelledy, approached me in 1991 with an idea he had for a column.
He wanted it to be full of items, snippets touching on several subjects, and he wanted it to be edgy. In other words: wading into areas that would make the establishment uncomfortable. He also wanted me to have a partner.
Shelledy argued that if the column were a little discombobulating to the powers that be, there should be two of us to share the blame. And we should come from different points of view — conservative vs. liberal, Mormon vs. non-Mormon — to provide some balance.
He also said it had to be somebody who liked me, who could get along with me. That narrowed the field considerably.
I suggested JoAnn, who at the time was working at the Deseret News. We took her to lunch, made the pitch and the rest is history.
She was the glamor, the one everybody liked. Had I started out on my own, I don't think it would have worked.
By the time JoAnn retired from The Tribune in 2004 to later become Teacher of the Year at Brighton High, the column was entrenched enough that I survived — contrary, I might add, to the Skyline bureaucrat's pronouncement I would amount to nothing.
What a difference 49 years makes.
One more thing: My tendency to disrespect authority usually got me kicked out of class or suspended for a day or two when I was in high school. Now I get paid to do it.