James Walker

Newspaper: The Daily Oakland Press, Pontiac, Mich.

Career background: 1997-2005, Assistant Managing Editor/Sports, Executive Sports Editor, The Daily Oakland Press, Pontiac, Mich.; 1993-1997, Sports Editor, Springfield News-Leader, Springfield, Mo.; 1991-1992, in private business as Marketing Director, Campbell Energy, Riyahd, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; 1978-1991, Executive Sports Editor, Metropolitan Editor, Deputy National/Foreign Editor, Political Reporter, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas; 1972-1978, Sports Reporter, Dallas Times Herald.

APSE activities: Chairman, APSE Southwest Region, 1984-85; Vice Chairman 1983.

Up close and personal: Family info, hobbies, etc. Single. Daughters Kelley, Assistant to the Dean, Vanderbilt Law School, Nashville, Tenn., and Mollie, an occupational therapist living in Capitola, Calif. Remote backwoods camping, hiking, listening to and collecting good blues, Tex-Mex, cajun, real country, roots music.

Quotable: We must be creative and persistent in combating the growing access problems our reporters face. We must get behind the facade erected by team and school officials and refuse to give in to their relentless efforts to control and be the final arbiter of what gets written about their teams, players, coaches and schools. An equally creative and innovative approach remains necessary in order to maintain high journalistic standards in the face of dwindling resources and lack of commitment from many of those who control newspapers in these troubling and confusing times.

Fun factoid: I'm the shy, retiring type and it's hard to drag an opinion out of me. Riiiight.

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