Kilroy Was Here!

Journalistic Journeys

Here's some of the places I've seen all in the name of being employed. Warning: this isn't an article summery and this is KAOS! We don't talk shop here!

Touring the Orr Mansion (left) in 2002 for a series of stories was a fun experience. The mansion, listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, was built in 1875 on a summit over 4,000 acres, consists of a 12-foot high first floor, a 10 1/2-foot second floor, a two-story third floor ballroom, and a four-story tower. It was commissioned by William Orr, the son of Indiana state senator and Brigadier Gen. Joseph Orr, who immigrated here from Donegal, Ireland.


Above and at right are pics from the Port of Indiana. These were taken by me and printed in the News-Dispatch in 2003. As I climbed up the gangway of the MS Milo that afternoon, I wondered how my dad managed to do that during his time in the Navy. I also wondered how people could climb those things without having panic attacks.

In April 2003 we toured NIPSCO's (Northern Indiana Public Service Co.) generating station in Michigan City. Note to those visiting Michigan City: that large tower you can see from any given point in the town is NOT a nuclear power plant. It's a cooling tower. NIPSCO never got into nuclear power -a little thing called Three Mile Island happened instead. Now for the people in the pic: (L-R) Lee Schelling, Dave Hawk, Moi and Chris Jacobs.

And this was not a fun night. In March 2005 Indiana executed a man after a two-year lull. That frigid night the prison parking lot was filled with press and protesters. In the pic above I'm listening to a press conference. We had several more executions that year, but the interest on the part of the press seemed to drop off after the first few.