John McLoughlin - once you met him you most likely would remember him forever. He was witty, smart, an exemplary reporter and a wonderful writer. His columns for the Times Union not only demonstrated his political savvy, but especially his ability - along with his sarcastic charm - to poke fun at the powerful.
He loved the news business - I wrote a piece about him when he left Channel 10 in 2011, after nearly four decades on air.
His career started in 1965 as a reporter for the Troy Record his hometown paper, and he was quickly hired by the Times Union. He also did a couple years on Rochester newspapers.
He told me that working in the news business: “For a kid from South Troy - it was just a fantastic thing. You got a front row seat for things happening in your community and your state, for years and years, and they pay you a little bit of money to do it.”
A weekly newspaper column that stands out was the one in which he compared the Empire State Building in Manhattan to the Albany County Courthouse in downtown Albany.
Democratic Party boss Dan O’Connell used patronage jobs to secure party loyalty and the courthouse was one of the buildings where O’Connell hired his supporters.
John wrote that the Empire State Building employed 60 janitors for 102 floors. The courthouse in Albany had 72 janitors working a mere - a measly - six floors.
After retiring from WTEN John went to work a few days a week for WNYT NewsChannel 13. He loved television as much as newspapers.
While working at the TU in the early ‘70s covering politics and writing the column, he began appearing weekly on Channel 10 doing a political commentary on the evening news.
That eventually led to a full time reporter’s job on 10. He was well known on the street as a newspaper reporter but once he started doing TV commentaries he was definitely more recognizable.
He loved to do “people on the street” interviews concerning what was going on in the news and those interviews quickly became viewers’ favorites.
Not surprisingly, John got those who participated in the “man-on-the-street” chats to say funny and outrageous things. Actually, in today’s terms, John could be considered leading the pack in social media street interviews.
For 31 years he hosted the annual telethon locally to benefit the Center For Disability Services. The officials at the Center loved and respected John’s commitment to raising money for them.
John’s health had failed him the last couple of years. He was hospitalized a lot. He had trouble walking.
We were in the same line of work - gathering news. We not only understood each other but we respected each other. That made it easy to be good friends. He was a very dear friend and may he rest in peace.
Carol DeMare worked as a reporter at the Times Union for a little more than 40 years. She covered courts in and out of New York State for many years, along with police stories and politics.
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