A Life of Words

When we lose family, dear friends or friends who are also colleagues and they’re younger than we are, it can be both shattering and confusing. We can’t understand why these things happen so tragically and cruelly. But they do, whether through an accident or health reasons. Despite the remarkable advances we’re making in medicine, there are some diseases we haven’t been able to defeat – yet.

My friend and longtime boss Joel Thornton, a meticulous, dedicated editor who was The Dallas Morning News’ copy desk chief for many years, dedicating more than 30 years of his career to the DMN, is one of my friends and former colleagues who, heartbreakingly, has left us for heaven after being in that latter category. Joel had been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia (the same condition Bruce Willis has, along with frontotemporal dementia) and early onset dementia several years ago when he was still in his late 50s. His condition had progressively worsened, and he had been in memory care for about a year.

When he passed away Saturday, April 5, Joel was only 62 years old.

Joel leaves behind the greatest loves and prides of his life: His son Cade, a sophomore in high school; his daughter Cammy, a teacher; his daughter Cara, a nursing school student; and his wife Melissa, a teacher.

A Nebraska native whose father, Dr. Melvin Thornton, was a math professor at the universities of Wisconsin and Nebraska-Lincoln, Joel was an avid runner, basketball player and lover of sports, especially football and hoops. He worshiped Nebraska Cornhusker football and knew its storied history inside and out, even though he graduated from the University of Kansas. Although he didn’t have much to cheer about when it came to Jayhawk football, Joel was also all about KU basketball, a perennial powerhouse. And with several other Kansas grads in the DMN newsroom, there was always a lot of Jayhawk hoops talk during the season and when March Madness came around.

I didn’t know who Joel was until early 2000, when I was coming up on 13 years at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and thinking seriously about looking into editing opportunities at the hated rival to the east. Several friends who had left the S-T for the DMN told me it would be the best move I could make, and that Joel was a great boss. I contacted Joel, visited with him by phone and we set up my interview that February. He hired me the same month and I started working on his Universal Desk on Feb. 29, the day after my 39th birthday.

My friends were right – Joel WAS a great boss. It wasn’t long before he gave me important oversight duties, and I appreciated his faith in me. I still can’t believe how long we worked together in the trenches with our fellow copy editors, editing thousands of staff and wire service stories about local, state, national and international news, fighting to meet multiple deadlines every night until midnight and sometimes later. I finally left the DMN in September 2022, after many years of layoffs, buyouts and constant fear about when the next shoe would drop.

It was tough but rewarding work, and Joel’s ability to keep the editing operation running so smoothly is part of the reason for that. I could get into a lot of details, but let’s just say there are plenty of excellent reasons Joel was in charge of the copy desk. He was detail-oriented (of course, all copy editors are); not afraid to delegate supervisory roles to others on a nightly basis and trust them to do the job; he knew how to get the best, most effective work out of his charges without being a whip-snapper; and he focused on the big picture and didn’t sweat the small stuff.

Joel had a wonderful smile, an all-in laugh, a distinctive voice and “yep, that’s Joel” mannerisms. He and I could always hang out in his office and talk about anything. He was always generous and genuine w/his praise during my annual evaluations, which I always appreciated. We would sometimes disagree about whether a headline I’d written “worked” or not, but we always ended up compromising/agreeing on what ended up appearing in the next day’s paper.

In recent years after Joel’s diagnosis, Frank Smith – my dear friend, fellow Texas A&M Aggie and also a former DMN copy desk colleague and close friend of Joel’s – and I were able to take Joel to lunch a few times and even to a Dallas Mavericks game and a Texas Rangers game. Although Joel usually couldn’t communicate what he wanted to say because of his aphasia, he was always in good spirits, laughing, often clearly remembering a memory Frank or I would mention about the newspaper, sports or something else. We had great times together.

After Joel left The Dallas Morning News in 2017, I’d often greet him as “Boss” when we talked by phone or saw each other. To me, he’ll always be my boss.

What Joel experienced during the last stages of his rewarding and wonderful life brings me great sadness. But my lasting memories of him will always be the ones of the fun, gregarious, outgoing Joel all of us who knew and love him will always remember. I know he’s already chatting up and making new friends with all the angels he meets.

See you down the road, Boss. ❤🏀🏈