Family, friends, coworkers and some readers remembered and celebrated the life of Washington Times editor Wes Pruden for his passion, leadership, quirks and perspective.
“Wesley Pruden loved covering this rollicking republic,” Washington Times Executive Editor Christopher Dolan said Friday in a eulogy. “And his readers loved him for it.”
Mr. Dolan recalled how Pruden preferred to be called a “newspaperman” instead of a “journalist,” a term he found pretentious.
When Pruden stepped down as editor-in-chief at The Washington Times in 2008, he assumed the title of editor emeritus, which Mr. Dolan called a misnomer.
“Wes remained the voice of The Times until his death last week,” Mr. Dolan said, noting that he continued over seeing the opinion section of the paper and writing his column Pruden on Politics.
Pruden died July 17 at the age of 83 in his Northwest home. A funeral and memorial were held Friday at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland.
“Sit Wes down in front of a typewriter or computer keyboard, and he would come alive,” former Times managing editor Francis Coombs said in a eulogy. “The column he wrote for decades, Pruden on Politics, regularly informed, amused, and outraged readers inside the beltway and far, far beyond.”
Times columnist Suzanne Fields and Carol Herman, deputy editorial page and book editor at The Times, also shared fond memories of Pruden.
Corinna Metcalf, his partner of about 50 years, said they had “absolutely nothing in common,” noting that she is an agnostic Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany while he was a “Southern gentleman” of Christian faith with several generations of family members in Arkansas.
“Yet somehow it worked,” she said.
“Even though we were so different and so unconnected in so many ways, the connection of loving someone was so powerful and it did keep us together,” Ms. Metcalf said.
Alex Metcalf recalled the first time he called Pruden “father” out of convenience and how Pruden’s face beamed.
“The family you choose, the one you want to be with, that’s the important one,” Mr. Metcalf said. “Wesley had chosen us and we had chosen him.”
Mr. Metcalf joked about a tattoo that his daughter has that Pruden hated. The tattoo reads, “Speak truth to power,” which Pruden didn’t like because, among other reasons, he found it trite as a newspaperman.
Mr. Metcalf thanked him for teaching him how to be a man and a father and how to speak truth to power.
A picture of Pruden in which he stands in front of a typewriter wearing a top hat, overlooking the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument greeted people before the funeral began.
He was born Dec. 18, 1935, in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he eventually got his start in the newspaper business. His first job was running copy at The Arkansas Gazette as a high school student and he later became a sportswriter.
Before he landed at The Washington Times, he covered civil rights and national politics for the National Observer. He went on to cover the Vietnam War and was a foreign correspondent based in Saigon, Hong Kong, Beirut and London.
Pruden joined The Times staff as the chief political correspondent just four months after the paper began in 1982, and he continued to work there as an editor and columnist for the rest of his career.
“Wes is a reminder of what real journalism looked like,” said conservative columnist Cal Thomas. “It is sadly lacking today in an industry that’s more interested in getting people than getting the news.”
Pruden is survived by Ms. Metcalf; her son, Alex Metcalf, and his two children; his sister, Joan Pruden Guthridge of Little Rock, and four nephews.
• Sophie Kaplan can be reached at skaplan@washingtontimes.com.
