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3 -- Stan Grossfeld, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Globe photographer,
recalled their 1981 trip to Northern Ireland, covering the hunger
strikers of the Irish Republican Army at Maze Prison.
"In those days, you had to dictate the stories over the
phone into a tape recorder in Boston," recalled Grossfeld,
who would read Mr. Nyhan's copy as he typed the next page. "As
fast as I could read the story, Dave would finish another page,
perfectly written."
Mr. Nyhan was inventive in pursuit of the story on the death
of Bobby Sands, one of the hunger strikers. At one point, Mr.
Nyhan decoyed guards outside the prison while Grossfeld surreptitiously
snapped photos. At another point, he paid someone to open a darkroom
at 5 a.m. so Grossfeld could develop his film, Grossfeld recalled.
Though generally pro-Democrat in his outlook and deeply held
beliefs, Mr. Nyhan periodically adopted and promoted the cause
of Republican candidates, particularly for president.
He especially admired Senator John McCain of Arizona. Another
GOP favorite was Lamar Alexander, the former governor of Tennessee
who is now a senator. As often happened with Mr. Nyhan's candidates,
they ultimately lost.
In each case, though, he informed them that his support had
limits. "I'm with you until the Democratic Convention,"
he told them.
There was rarely middle ground in Mr. Nyhan's columns. "If
you're going to help someone, really help them," was one
of his credos.
Mr. Nyhan's forthrightness was not restricted to his column.
A disciple of former Globe editor Thomas Winship, Mr. Nyhan showed
willingness at a 1986 management think tank to give voice to
widespread editorial dissatisfaction with Winship's successor,
Michael C. Janeway. His remarks were seen by many to have precipitated
Janeway's resignation.
Such candor could make Mr. Nyhan suspect in senior circles
both inside and outside the paper -- Cardinal Bernard F. Law
accused him of slander in 1989. It was a mark of his populist
credentials.
Mr. Nyhan always had more time for the paper's custodians
and phone operators than for editors. His outsider sympathies
more than matched insider credentials, such as those that earned
him a spot as a pallbearer at the 1994 funeral of former US House
speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill Jr.
Mr. Nyhan's freewheeling style created a small uproar in 1993
when a teasing remark directed at a male colleague employed a
crude term for excessive deference to women. It was overheard
by a female colleague and led to the Globe's then-editor Matthew
V. Storin fining Mr. Nyhan for the remark. The punishment was
later waived.
As much as he loved to talk about politics, Mr. Nyhan enjoyed
talking more about his three children. At their father's 60th
birthday party, they gathered around the piano at his Brookline
home and sang their own version of Cole Porter's "You're
the Top." Continued...