Holiday greetings from Steve and Mimi

Warm holiday greetings to family and friends. Two family developments and two
professional developments this year deserve special mention before I start the A to Z
approach I’ve used the last couple years on our holiday letter.

We felt a deep sorrow this year at the loss of our nephew and godson,
Patrick Devlin, to leukemia. Patrick received a bone marrow
transplant in March and appeared to be healing, but the cancer
relapsed in July and he declined quite rapidly. I visited him in the
hospital in Burlington, Vt., the first weekend in September and could
see the end was near. He was barely conscious when I visited,
though I had a good visit with his parents, Carol and John, and his
sister Kathryn. We lost Patrick a few days later, Wednesday, Sept. 9,
and I returned to Vermont with Mimi. Mike and Tom came up from
Washington and several other family members joined us in Vermont
for the funeral. I will never forget the sight of so many grief-stricken boys in Scout uniforms.
Carol and John asked me to deliver a eulogy. We will always remember Patrick, a fun,
brave boy who left us too soon. We will always admire the grace and strength with which
Carol and John bore this unbearable loss and shared the story of Patrick’s struggle on
CaringBridge.

We also had joyful news: Mimi

and I will become grandparents
in March when Mike and Susie
are expecting a daughter. They
visited for Thanksgiving and
won’t be with us for Christmas,
so Santa filled our first
grandchild’s first Christmas
stocking (yes, we’re excited).
From the ultrasound, Mimi
thinks the baby’s nose looks a
bit like Mike’s. I won’t go on this
year, but expect lots more
about our granddaughter in
next year’s holiday letter.

Professionally, I’ve moved from editor to a role focused solely on innovation. While I was
editor, I had to cut the newsroom staff by 14, an experience shared by far too many of my
colleagues. That may have been the longest day of my career (and the weeks leading up to
it were extremely difficult, too). In the innovation role, I got a fair amount of attention for two
sets of blog posts about business models for the future of news companies: A Blueprint for
the Complete Community Connection and Mobile-First Strategy. We have a lot of work still
Steve and Mimi’s holiday greetings Page 2

to do, but I’m pleased to be helping in the search for a prosperous future for our company
and for an industry that’s in a perilous decline. And I’m pleased to be sharing my C3
concept in my blog, by invitation to other blogs and publications, and in presentations,
including one for the Poynter McCormick Big Ideas Conference. Poynter also featured one
of my mobile-first posts on its web site.

Two of those C3 presentations were in

Siberia. Yes, Siberia. When I led an ethics
seminar in September for the University of
Kentucky, the schedule included some
discussions, through an interpreter, with
visiting journalists from the Press
Development Institute-Siberia. After dinner
that evening, the leader of the group, Victor
Yukechev, said, “Next time, Siberia.” I said
sure, and Victor actually meant it. So in
December, Mimi and I traveled to Barnaul,
Siberia (with stops on the way back in St.
Petersburg and Moscow). It was a delightful
trip and we made several friends there:
Victor, Kate, Oksana, Sergey, Katya,
Galina, Polina, Yuri ... Be sure to read
Mimi’s blog, if you haven’t already. And if
you want to know about the business part
of the trip, I wrote about it, too. Yes, we
worried a bit about going to Siberia in
December, and we experienced bitter cold
and a fascinating three-hour walking tour in the snow, including the outdoor market pictured
here. But Iowa had a worse storm while we were gone than anything we experienced in
Russia.

And now, for the rest of our year, from A to Z:

Arnolds. I enjoyed reconnecting with Arnold

cousins this year. Doug Worgul (left) and
Frank Yunk-Arnold (right) joined the group
celebrating Dan’s honor (more on that shortly)
in the Kansas City area. Facebook also helped
me reconnect with their sisters, Jan Worgul
Ackerson and Louise Eddington.

Beard. In June I shaved my beard off for the

first time in about 20 years.
Steve and Mimi’s holiday greetings Page 3

Chaplain Frank Arnold II, my uncle (Frank and Louise’s father) died when I was 9 years old,
so I never knew him well. But after we got together in May, Frank said he had been reading
his father’s World War II diary and asked if we would like copies. I found it fascinating (and
chilling at times: “This is the day that Satan hath made”) and asked Frank’s permission to
publish excerpts on my blog.

Doctor. My brother Dan received an honorary doctorate in May from Central Baptist
Theological Seminary. I joined Mom, Dan’s wife, Sharon, one of his sons, Jon (and girlfriend
Lenzi), and daughter Janelle for that celebration in the Kansas City area. But no, I don’t call
him “doctor.” I saw both of my brothers in October, when Dan visited Don’s family in
Shenandoah and I joined them for a celebration of Don’s birthday.

Ethics. I continue to lead ethics seminars for the American Press Institute, presenting eight
seminars and one webinar this year. I also was a panelist for an American Society of News
(formerly Newspaper) Editors forum on the ethics and values of journalism at the Reynolds
Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri.

Fort Worth. Mimi accompanied me on a trip to TCU, where I led seminars on ethics and C3.
We had a great memory-lane trip, driving past our first married homes (didn’t find either
without some wandering), joining old friends Al Sibello (at Angelo’s, our favorite barbecue
place, still going strong) and Mike Gerst for dinners and making some new friends at the
Schieffer School of Journalism.

Gulf of Mexico. Mimi and I enjoyed

cruising the Gulf twice this
summer, a lovely dinner cruise on
a sailboat with people from the
Mississippi Press Association off
the coast of Biloxi and a dolphin
cruise the weekend before my
Poynter conference (who knew
we’d get to two St. Petersburgs
this year?).

Harkin. We were not long without

a son working in the Senate. Tom
got a job in Sen. Tom Harkin’s
office as a legislative
correspondent. He answers mail from
Harkin’s constituents on military
issues. We visited Tom in Davenport
when he was there on some business
for Harkin.
Steve and Mimi’s holiday greetings Page 4

Iowa and iPhone. I will be team-teaching a course at the University of Iowa this coming
semester. Our topic: Creating an iPhone app.

Joe visited from Las Vegas in August. We went down to Kansas City, visited Mom and
connected with Mike and Susie, who were visiting from Washington. Kim couldn’t come, so
we haven’t seen her this year (need to plan a Vegas trip sometime soon, I guess). She got
a new job at the City Center, which has a new theater.

Kelly. Mimi and I went to Des Moines in October to cheer on niece Kelly Head, walking a
half-marathon to raise
money for research to fight
leukemia and lymphoma.
Kelly walked for Patrick the
month after his death and we
were proud and grateful.

Lake Tahoe. A March

seminar in Reno gave Mimi
and me an excuse to spend
a beautiful weekend at Lake
Tahoe.

Mike started a new job this

year with the Washington
public affairs firm Chlopak, Leonard & Schechter, after working nearly eight of the previous
nine years for Sen. Chuck Hagel. Susie continues teaching at Holy Trinity School in
Georgetown, though the baby will cut her school year short.

Nebraska. An ethics seminar for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln gave Mimi and me an
opportunity to visit old friends in Omaha and Lincoln.

Ohio. Mimi’s brother John and his wife, Kim, hosted the sisters in March at their home in
Dublin, Ohio, for a weekend of cooking old family recipes with Annie Pullaro, Donna
Tedesco, Joanne Krieger and Bill Leck, relatives from New Jersey.

Polyps made no appearance this year. A colonoscopy (sorry, no pictures) showed that
what’s left of my colon is doing fine. The 10-year anniversary of my surgery for colon cancer
passed unnoticed until a few days later. That’s cancer-free.

Mimi has become Quite a foodie (hey, we don’t always have a trip to Quito to fill the
alphabet out easily). She’s always been a great cook, but I don’t think we’ve ever tried out
as many new recipes as we have this year. She adds her own twists to recipes from the
Food Network and mastered some Julia Child recipes after we watched “Julie and Julia.”
Steve and Mimi’s holiday greetings Page 5

Royals. For the first time in several years, I made it to Kansas City to watch the Royals
play, each time with a different family group. Both times Mom was able to join us. She has
adjusted well to assisted living and we enjoyed several visits to her in Lee’s Summit.

Stillwater. Mimi’s
sisters and their
husbands gathered
in Minnesota in July
for the wedding of
Sam Johnson, son
of their cousin,
Gary. We enjoyed
two cruises on the
St. Croix River, first
a dinner cruise on a
paddleboat and
then we rented a
boat, piloted by
brother-in-law
David Wehe, for a
pleasure cruise.

Twitter. Mimi and I

continue to share daily observations and experiences and
our love of writing with friends, family and tweeps on
Twitter. I have been teaching journalists how to use
Twitter. Mimi’s made some local friends on Twitter,
including @toddadamson, who shot this cool avatar for
her. If you want to follow, we’re @stevebuttry and
@mimijohnson.

Universities. I can’t remember visiting as many campuses

as I did this year: Temple, Nevada Reno, Kentucky, Nebraska, TCU, Iowa State, Wisconsin-
Eau Claire, Iowa, Missouri and USC (for a video interview that was part of the National
Summit on Arts Journalism). I taught two courses at Kirkwood Community College, one in
Twitter and one in using social media for business.

Video. Using her new iPhone and iMovie on her Mac, Mimi has started making videos. As
you read her travel blog from Siberia, be sure to check out the animated video of our
journey’s route and the Cue Stick Guy video on “Moscow – Big Traffic.”

Writing. Mimi continues working on selling one novel and writing another. She launched her
blog, Rubyeyedfox.com, for the trip to Siberia, and plans to continue it, though perhaps not
posting as frequently. She might post some samples of her fiction and write about future
Steve and Mimi’s holiday greetings Page 6

travels. When our friend, Chuck Offenburger, was diagnosed with lymphoma, Mimi wrote
him a note of encouragement that Chuck enjoyed and asked if he could publish on his site.
I’ve been blogging, too, and you’ve already seen lots of links to that, so enough said.

(SD)X. The Gazette staff won the Sigma Delta Chi Award for deadline reporting (and
several other state, regional and national awards) for our coverage of the 2008 floods. That
experience will always be a highlight of my career and it was rewarding to see the staff
receive much-deserved recognition.

Yankees. Yes, I enjoyed the Yankees’ 27th world championship season. Rather than bore
followers of my blog or tweets who don’t care about baseball (or hate the Yankees), I
blogged and tweeted as “hatedyankees.”

Zins. Mimi and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary with a wonderful dinner at Zins, a
small-plates restaurant in downtown Cedar Rapids that was flooded last year and reopened
this year. We enjoy patronizing the businesses that are coming back as our community
recovers, and Zins has become a favorite. We’ve taken all three of our sons and Susie out
to eat there.

From the story of Noah to the stories of leprechauns to the Wizard of Oz and Kermit the
Frog, rainbows have always been a sign of hope. So we’ll close this year’s holiday letter by
sharing pictures of a double rainbow we saw in August, driving to meet our niece Liz
McNamara for dinner. We also share our hope for blessings in 2010 with our family and
friends.