 |
|
|
|
Photograph by Dai Sugano
Kay Henry may be retiring, but she says she intends to stay well-connected to the community she thinks of as 'home.'
|
Kay Henry is retiring, but she still remains anything but shy
By Dale Bryant
In her 20-year history with community newspapers in Los Gatos, Kay Henry, office manager for the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, performed a variety of official duties, including accounting, circulation, legals, classifieds and reception. But when people think of Henry, they usually identify her with the tasks that were never in her job description-- official greeter, social director, volunteer coordinator and cheerleader.
Now, Henry, the Weekly-Times' ambassador of goodwill, has decided it's time to start traveling, enjoying the outdoors and spending more time with her children and grandchildren. And she'd also like to get back to War and Peace, a book that's been sitting around her house with a bookmark in it for years.
Although she's officially retiring, Henry says she's not planning to break her ties with the community that's been an integral part of her life for the last 20 years. "I've already arranged for a subscription to the Weekly-Times," she says. "And I'm planning to talk to Dan and David about letting me bring a canvas director's chair to set up on the front porch one afternoon a week so I can greet and talk to people."
Dan and David are Dan Pulcrano, CEO, and David Cohen, publisher, of Metro Publishing Inc., parent company of Silicon Valley Community Newspapers and the Los Gatos Weekly-Times. Chances are they'll agree to Henry's proposal.
When the new Weekly-Times began operation, then-operations manager Greg Elliot (left) and general manager Parker Stokes offered special handling when they transferred Kay Henry to her new digs.
Photograph by Dan Pulcrano
Pulcrano and Henry have had a friendly, bantering relationship since Pulcrano started the Los Gatos Weekly in direct competition with the Times-Observer in 1982.
"Our offices were across the parking lot from each other. I would shamelessly walk into their office and try and recruit her," Pulcrano recalls. "The T-O at the time was run by an Iowa corporation with little interest in the community. Their best asset was Kay. She knew everyone, and everyone loved her."
Those long-distance owners were part of the reason Henry made such an effort to involve herself in the community. "When the new owners took over the T-O, no one went to functions, so I started going because I thought the paper should be represented," Henry says.
Sue La Forge, a former editor of the Times-Observer and, later, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, recalls that Henry became an ambassador with the Chamber because she "genuinely enjoyed meeting people and welcoming newcomers to the community."
After Pulcrano sold the Weekly, he was as good as his word when he and Cohen bought both the Weekly and the Times-Observer in 1990. They not only bought the T-O, they walked away with that newspaper's greatest asset--Kay Henry.
Friends are welcome to drop by Double D's on Aug. 31 at 5 p.m. to say farewell.
|
|
|
|
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
