Neosho Daily publisher offers tribute to Larry Young

Neosho Daily News Publisher Rick Rogers, a former assignment editor at KODE, published a tribute to KODE and KSNF's news director Larry Young, who died of cancer earlier this week:

What I learned from Larry was how to care about your staff.

Nearly every day we worked together for those 16 months, Larry would come to the office each morning and his first question would never be about what big stories we were covering that day, or what problems reporters were having. He asked how my kids were doing, and how my wife, Elizabeth, was doing. Larry’s daughter was in Elizabeth’s band at Carl Junction several years ago.

When Rachel was born during my time at the TV station, Larry made sure to come by and visit us at the hospital. He stayed only five minutes, but he also made an effort.

When he could tell you were having a bad day, or under the weather, he would pull you aside and ask what he could do to help. He would let his employees vent, and then try to help with the situation.

Larry was not an in-your-face manager. Some employees, in my opinion, took advantage of his caring nature.

I envied it.

I envied how well he juggled his job and his family. He loved his wife, Cheri, and two daughters, Sarah and Adrienne.

His family was much more important to him then any job.