As my time as Editor-in-Chief of The State News begins to come to a close, I have found myself thinking more often about what this title actually leaves behind.
And it is not the budget meetings.
Nor is it the decisions that feel larger-than-life in the moment.
Not the edits on difficult stories.
While all important, the position begs a deeper question: When this role concludes, what parts of it are supposed to stay with me?
In learning about James Allan Mitzelfeld, I found an answer.
Before he became a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for exposing public corruption in Michigan, before he became a federal prosecutor and senior counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General, Jim Mitzelfeld was Editor-in-Chief of The State News.
And according to those who knew him best, he never stopped carrying that experience.
“Being editor of The State News held a very, very special place in his heart,” said his wife, Lisa Mitzelfeld. “Always.”
