Tommy Denton stepped down as editorial page editor of The Roanoke Times in Virginia on June 30.

Tommy Denton stepped down as editorial page editor of The Roanoke Times in Virginia on June 30. Denton, who joined the paper in 1998, opted to take the summer off before returning to the paper parttime in October to write weekly columns for the opinion pages.

Editoral writer and NCEW member Dan Radmacher is serving as interim editorial page editor until Denton's replacement is named.

An NCEW Life Member, Denton worked as a copy editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer in the late 1970s. In the early 1980s, he served as executive assistant for state affairs for U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas. From 1983 to 1998 he worked for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, as opened page editor, editorial page editor, and senior editorial writer and columnist.

Like Claude Duncan, Tommy also delivered his readers with some lyrical views as he walked out the door of his newspaper for the last time as editorial page editor. The following is exerpted from Tommy's farewell column, published in the Times on July 2:

"Everyone ought to embark on an adventure from time to time. Life's short, and sameness can muddle the mind and stifle the soul.

"Knowing of such consequences and aware of the peril of such entrapment no doubt led Henry David Thoreau to write, perhaps as much in warning as in observation: 'The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.'

"So my wife and I will take leave soon for yet another opportunity to see what's 'out there, Our children are grown and our bodies are more or less resilient, if not quite as willing to take sustained abuse as they once were. After two back surgeries in the last three years, and aware there are no guarantees, I hope to venture beyond the next horizon and back while my mobility still allows....

'Among the more significant adventures I've been blessed to experience was my appointment eight years ago as editorial page editor of The Roanoke Times. The opportunity came relatively late in a career, with no guarantees.

"We never looked back, and we've been blessed by good fortune and providence, and we are grateful. It's someone else's turn now to manage the shop.

"In the fall, I'll return to these pages for a while to string words together and do my dead-level best to invite folks not to fall into the thrall of Thoreau's prediction. Life's too short."