O P I N I O N
DAY BY DAY
By Dan Szczesny
I’m usually not one to wax philosophical about politicians, but there is one who stands out and played a pretty important role at a key moment in my life.
Manchester’s Bob Baines passed away Friday. He was the city’s mayor from 2000-2006.
He was also a former high school principal and was currently sitting on the city school board. His years as mayor coincide with myself and my two partners creating and launching HippoPress, the weekly arts and entertainment newspaper that is still going strong all these years later.
Back then, one of our first stops in 2001, even before the paper had launched, was the mayor’s office. We weren’t dummies. In New England, it’s always wise to line up your key supporters (or figure out who isn’t a supporter) early on in a project launch.
Much to our surprise, he welcomed us enthusiastically. Maybe he thought having an alternate voice to the Union Leader was a good thing. Maybe he was smart enough to make nice with young hungry journalists in the hope that they’d become allies. Maybe years as an educator gave him a reflexive hunch that these young, clueless guys could use some hand-holding.
Don’t know. But he opened his office to us whenever we needed it, or needed a story. Those talks and conversations were not always on friendly terms, as was proper, but he never shut us or our reporters out. A big difference from how things work these days.
In particular, during that first meeting with him (maybe the second or third) he was blunt about our chances of success, in particular because he hated the idea of the paper being called The Hippo.
“That doesn’t even make sense!” he’d say.
We went with it anyway and the name stuck. And every time any of us saw him after that, he’d just smile and yell “Hey, Hippo!”
I did a lot of reporting for the paper in those early days, and spent a lot of time down at City Hall. I’m not saying he made my job easier, he didn’t. But he was one of those rare guys who – if nothing else – understood how it all worked, and that we were a part of that equation as well.
He made mistakes. We reported on them. He had successes, we reported on those as well. Either way, he always picked up the phone and I never doubted he loved this city.
I don’t have any inspirational quotes from him or deep thoughts. He was just solid. He had character.
And having a guy like him on the school board as my daughter used those very schools was a positive thing. He was a throwback to a different time which is difficult to detect now.
I’m not sure exactly where my life would be, honestly, had he not been mayor at that exact moment in my professional life. Town Hall during those early days in New Hampshire is where I honed my skill as a journalist. Where I made friends and contacts that remain to this day. Town Hall is where I met my wife Meena.
He was a good guy. That’s it, that’s what sticks and this has played out after his passing as friends, officials and lawmakers from every side of the political spectrum have come out to sing his praises.
Is there any better legacy than everybody remembering you as being decent after you pass? We all should be so fortunate.
More of Dan Szczesny’s Day by Day columns can be found on Substack.