IECN Publisher Bill Harrison Leaves Behind a Legacy of Local Excellence

By Syeda Jafri, RUSD Communications Agent/Spokesperson

Everyone’s life comes with a story. It is due time that Bill Harrison’s story came to life.

If you can change one person’s life on this Earth, you have succeeded in this world. Bill changed several lives, for the better. He is not alive today to acknowledge his actions of unconditional kindness, and that’s exactly the way Bill would have wanted it.

In the spring of 1994, I left Hong Kong and set out to make a new life for myself. I came back home to live in my parent’s home in the City of Rialto. In my early 20s, I reconnected with my former high school journalism classmate, Lynette Jueneman. I wanted to apply for a position as a journalist at my hometown newspaper, the Rialto Record. Lynette was the editor-in-chief for the Inland Empire Community Newspapers (encompassing Rialto Record, Colton Courier, and El Chicano newspapers) and she encouraged me to apply.

On a warm and sunny Monday morning, 29 years ago, I walked into the 1809 Commercenter West Building nestled near the Hospitality Lane area of San Bernardino. After meeting up with Lynette, and recognizing that I missed the newsroom atmosphere of police radio scanners, and chasing stories at strange hours (this was way before the instant gratification of social media, this was also a time when we woke up to our alarm clocks, not iPhones). Writing was always a passion, I caught the bug early; in high school journalism, and then as a short-term newspaper intern at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner which folded in 1989. I was ready.

Lynette said the Publisher of Operations is a man named Bill Harrison. “He’s very smart, pretty much leaves the editorial department alone, a champion of the free press, but he will ask you lots of questions, and most likely these questions, won’t be ordinary ones.

She wasn’t untruthful. There was nothing ordinary about him and his questions were equally complex as the man, himself, but I was hired. 

Lynette and I had familiarity, trust, and a deep desire to fix what seemed broken in the cities we were assigned to and grew up in, and Bill gave us full support. He embodied Finley Peter Dunne’s 1902 crafted expression of the responsibilities of what the press does – “comforts the afflicted, afflicts the comfortable.” 

Everyone from the IECN’s “news family” began calling and texting. This text was shared by Lynette: “I came to work for Bill in the early 1990s, fresh out of college, looking for a job. He offered me the managing editor position at IECN. He saw something in me I didn’t yet know I had. He was likely one of few publishers at the time to have hired a young woman to manage his weekly newspapers. He employed many young people on staff, in fact, giving us a chance to learn the ropes of journalism and/or advertising. I learned that his commitment to a free press went hand in hand with his championing of the underdogs in society. Looking back, it occurs to me that Bill’s mentorship likely helped cement, if not foster, my respect and lifelong quest for knowledge. The news of Bill’s passing saddens me. My time at IECN is chronicled in black-and-white. I, and other staff members, had bylines on articles and opinion columns. Yet much of my hometown’s and neighboring communities’ printed history owes a great deal to this man who was content to work behind the scenes to keep the fountain of knowledge flowing.”

After Lynette left to become a copy desk editor at the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and later, an educator, Bill offered me the editor/lead reporter position for the Record, and later for the other publications. To put it in perspective, 1994 was a critical time in America, but especially in the Inland Empire. The IE was promising in many ways. Affordable housing prices left the IE in a financially attractive position as more and more people moved out of Orange and Los Angeles Counties. But where there’s growth, there’s turmoil, and where there’s turmoil, free speech, and free press were needed to balance the overall scope of the political and social environment of the times. That’s what newspapers did then. We started asking questions that weekly newspapers never did before. There was a slight shift, a desire to investigate and find the truth not masqueraded with telling us it’s conspiracy theories. The public was waking up and we were writing stories that affected peoples’ local livelihoods. Some liked it, others did not. The deadlines were stressful, but the papers became larger. The catchphrase, “lawyer up” didn’t exist then but Bill Lemann offered his support when we were challenged. Bill Harrison had integrity and even running his weekly news publications, he would not be bought or sold and he would not allow anyone to deviate from sound judgment or extort him. It was tried and they failed. “There’s no sacred cows, here,” he smiled, “but just be careful of the bulls, they are everywhere.” 

The years of 1994 through 1999 brought lots of emotionally charged dialogue about police brutality (the Rodney King verdict was at the forefront of the nation’s mind, and fairness dictates that we don’t miss Reginald Denny, who was pulled out of his truck and beaten brutally because he was “white,” in the aftermath of the King verdict). Who could forget the OJ trial, which sparked a time when race would become a factor that we all needed to understand closer – with context? To balance this narrative, there wasn’t mass corruption in our communities, but there was enough to warrant local social justice causes to emerge at various levels of civic government. The local civic activists of the time, such as Dee Ortega, Raul Wilson, Victoria Baca, Edgar Montes, Gil Navarro, Steve Figueroa, Dave Dunphy, Beane Preston, Dr. June Hayes, Richard Sandoval, Barbara Tudor, Greta Hodges, Ed Carrillo, Ed Scott, Ratibu Jaycock, Sylvester Muhammad, Don Briggs, Will Andersen, Eufemia Reyes, Walker Hawkins, Grace Vargas, Hardy Brown, Sr., and many leaders at that time who dominated positive and needed changes in our communities. WAG, MAPA, NAACP, MPA, if you know these acronyms, you were certainly there or aware of their grassroots missions. I certainly needed Tynenol after I was done with some sessions. Some of these familiar names mentioned would either come into our newsroom or make weekly phone calls to give us potential story ideas, or I would call them for on-the-record comments. Some of these community activists have moved away, some hold respectable elected positions to date, and some, now, like Bill, have passed. All had one common denominator; they cared. 

Bill, who gave up writing his columns “El Machete,” for El Chicano to open doors for new writers, believed that the heart of any community always depended on people who spoke out when others ran for anonymity and safety. He was a painfully private person and at times seemed aloof, but he was very much in tune with the times. He loathes arrogance, corruption and found solace in simple living. The wealth he accumulated meant nothing if people around him weren’t happy. 

With over a decade of newspapering (1994-2005) and almost three decades of actually knowing Bill Harrison, I realized that I have lost a profound influence in my life. When I interviewed and accepted the job of Public Information Officer/Communications Director/Agent/Spokesperson, at the Rialto Unified School District, Bill was my biggest cheerleader. “Don’t look back, I’m proud of you kid,” he said. I told him saw a tear in his eye, but he said it was just raining outside and he forgot to wipe his face. I never knew a person who gave so many young (minded, not just in age) women opportunities, a platform, and a voice to use their words to change the landscape of communities. Bill was a pillar of support and stability for us.

Today, Denise Berver, who, along with Manny Sandoval, are fittingly the Co-Publishers of IECN. Denise also viewed Bill as a father figure whose straightforwardness and biting honesty would drive many of us, including Bill’s own daughter, the late Diana Macias Harrison, and the reporters in the newsroom to challenge and debate with him often. He fought fair. He listened, got frustrated with us, but we are all better for having had him in our lives. Along with Denise, many of my dedicated IECN peers such as Darla Martin Tucker, Valerie Zapata, Claudia Marroquin, Kristina Hernandez, Sara Folsom, Dr. Robert Rodriquez, Monica Mankin, and Desire Hunterwere given opportunities to report and inform the masses. These young minds who began at IECN are all successful in their own rights.

My condolence to Gloria Macias Harrison, (former Dean at San Bernardino Valley College and former first Latina President of Crafton Hills College, current SB Community College District Board Trustee) in the loss of her life partner. She was the actual Publisher of IECN, but Bill and Diana successfully ran the operations. Gloria was married to Bill for 58 years. He was her chief cheerleader. My strength goes out to Gloria, and condolences also to their son, William Harrison, two grandchildren, and the Harrison and McQueen Families. 

Gloria left a voice message last week that was painful to hear. I can only equate the news to losing my own father. “Bill passed,” she said. I was numb after those two words. My husband embraced me as I openly wept. It wasn’t even raining. I called Denise. We spoke for an hour remembering our fun adventures with high-profile subjects in the newsroom and the friendships we gathered with each other along the way. I then called Gloria back expressing that she and I had just spoken just a week ago, and I was supposed to visit Bill. 

Time waits for no one, it just discovers the truth.

Syeda Jafri is the Communications Agent/Spokesperson for the Rialto Unified School District, a former state-recognized journalist and a local part-time radio on-air personality/broadcaster in Redlands for 96.7 FM KCAL Rocks She can be reached at sjafri@rialtousd.org