Coloradoan reporter Pat Ferrier: 'Thank you, Fort Collins, and goodbye'

Goodbyes — and change, for that matter — have never been easy for me. There are plenty of both coming my way.

After 44 years as a journalist — 23 at the Coloradoan — I am retiring May 2. Then, I’m off on a new adventure: returning to my native New England to help care for my nieces' new babies so they can continue their own careers. Those three little faces bring nothing but joy, and I can’t wait to watch them grow.

It’s an exciting chapter that brings me close to family after being 2,000 miles apart for nearly 40 years. But, it means leaving a community I have come to love and co-workers and friends whom I love even more.

I am so grateful to my bosses, past and present, who kept me around all these years when so many of my colleagues didn’t get that same opportunity. Leaving on my own terms and on my own timeline is a privilege I never thought I’d have.

And I am most grateful to you, readers, who keep picking up the paper or clicking on our website. Having an objective daily newspaper is so important to any community, but it can’t survive without you.

Being a journalist, telling other people’s stories, giving a voice to those who didn’t feel heard, is all I had ever wanted to do since I was 16. I knew I had found my passion and my calling that first day I stepped into my high school journalism class with Mr. Holman.

The job has taken me from small-town council meetings to the White House to NFL locker rooms. From witnessing heartbreaking suffering to lessening someone’s burden. Learning something new, meeting someone new is still the favorite part of my job.

It has been such a gift to be around smart, creative and deeply thoughtful — albeit quirky — co-workers who show up every day in the face of significant challenges to fight the good fight on your behalf. They come with one agenda only: to be fair and accurate.

Throughout the past 44 years, I’ve worked at nine newspapers in the San Luis Valley, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Longmont and Fort Collins. I’ve done almost every job: editor, reporter, photographer, layout and design (back in the days of paper dummies, pica poles, waxers and proportion wheels), even a stint as interim executive editor in my early days at the Coloradoan. And I've covered almost every beat: sports, features, opinion, school board, politics, New Hampshire presidential primary, local government and health care.

But business brought me to Fort Collins.

When Coloradoan editor Dave Greiling called me in 2002 about becoming his business editor, I thought he’d lost his mind. I’d never read an earnings report or studied a city's sales and use taxes. I'd never analyzed the economic impact of rising interest rates and couldn't have told you the difference between a bank and credit union. But, he said I knew how to develop a beat and could learn the rest.

I spent my first six months terrified that my bosses and readers would discover I was a fraud.

Fortunately, I found a community of Realtors, economists, business owners, city officials, economic developers, nonprofits, builders, planning and zoning officials, tech workers, bankers, tourism folks and many, many others willing to answer my questions and teach me about Fort Collins. I am forever grateful to those who gave their time, shared their expertise or trusted me enough to share their stories.

And, I am thankful for our print and digital readers without whom we wouldn’t have a purpose.

I don’t know how many interviews I’ve done, how many words I’ve written or how many meetings I’ve covered.

But I know I leave this career, this job, this community, with sources who have become dear friends, co-workers who are now family and a deep gratitude for a full and rich career.

The late Katherine Graham, publisher of The Washington Post, once said: "To love what you do and feel that it matters — how can anything be more fun?"

I couldn't agree more.

Thank you, Fort Collins, and goodbye.

Pat Ferrier is the soon-to-be former business and growth reporter at The Coloradoan. She can be reached at patferrier58@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Coloradoan reporter Pat Ferrier: 'Thank you, Fort Collins, and goodbye'