The Shadow: Buck Rumpf Legacy 12 years ago

Welcome back, Shadowers! I’m taking a much needed post-election break this week, so I’ll leave you with an article about Buck Rumpf’s (the original Shadow) retirement from the Virginian Review twelve years ago this month. See you next week.

November 3, 2012: Buck Rumpf Ends Decades-long Career

The Virginian Review will never be the same again.

George “Buck” Rumpf has retired at the tender age of 85.

“Everybody’s got to go sometime,” he said when he announced his retirement to the newsroom earlier this year. “Now’s my time to hang it up.”

Buck’s retirement, effective as of today, puts an end to a 66-year career in local newspapers.

After returning home from the Philippines in World War II, Buck spent a year on the rails before signing on with the Daily Review in 1946.

Buck has done everything from delivering papers to running a Linotype to selling ads to covering local politics.

“I started carrying papers when I was a kid and worked at the print shop part-time while I was in school, printing envelopes and so forth,” he recalled. “Then I climbed up the ladder and became a lead pressman. After the war, they didn’t have any openings, so I worked at the railroad freight depot for a year.”

The Covington Virginian purchased the Daily Review in 1988 and Buck signed on to the staff of the Virginian, which began publishing as the Virginian Review in 1989.

In 1996, Buck began covering Clifton Forge City Council and he added Iron Gate Town Council to his beat in 2000.

It’s been common to see Buck out and about in the Highlands over the years with his trusty camera in tow just in case a news story warranted a good picture. “Work me something up and send it my way,” he would commonly say to the subject of his photographs when he needed some information.

Buck has also been the anonymous author of the Virginian Review’s weekly column “The Shadow,” something that may have been the worst-kept secret in the Alleghany Highlands.

“The Shadow,” which will come to an end with Buck’s retirement, was filled with rumors and whimsical reflections of his life while growing up in Clifton Forge during the Great Depression. The final edition of the Shadow appears in today’s Virginian Review.

Buck was the youngest child in a family of eight children.

His father, John, came to the Clifton Forge area from Tremont, Pa., which is located near the state capital of Harrisburg. In Pennsylvania, John worked to help shore up coal mines. After coming to Clifton Forge, he worked for the city in the public works department.

“I never got the real story as to why my father came to Clifton Forge from Pennsylvania,” Buck said. “I don’t know if he originally came to work in the iron mines, or what.”

Buck’s mother, Alma, was originally from the Blue Ridge area of Botetourt County. She was a housewife, working at home to raise the kids and keep the household running. The family resided on Verge Street.

When Buck was born in 1926, Republican Herbert Hoover was president and the Great Depression hit in 1929. It became the longest, most widespread, and deepest depression of the 20th century. Buck was almost three years old when the stock market crashed on Oct. 29, 1929, triggering the Depression and plunging millions into deep poverty.

“As you read this column over the years, you could see that my family was poor but so was everyone else on the street where I lived and the funny part about it, we did not know we were poor,” Buck wrote in today’s final installment of The Shadow.

Buck’s father died in 1948 and his mother passed away in 1957. They are both buried in Clifton Forge.

“None of my brothers and sisters are still living but if they were, they would tell you that we had loving parents that did the best for us under trying times. God was good to my family and still is in 2012,” Buck notes in his final Shadow column.

While chatting with the staff at the Virginian Review, Buck often reflected on how his parents taught him to makes ends meet and instilled him with a strong work ethic. During part of his career at The Daily Review, Buck also worked at Standard Printing, a business he co-owned and operated with his late business partner, Joe Peaco.

“It almost killed me while I worked at both places,” Buck said. “I worked day and night.”

After selling Standard Printing to Jimmy Garcia and Rick Jesse, Buck once again turned his full attention to newspaper work. If you tally up 66 years worth of editions, Buck has had a hand in creating content for nearly 20,000 newspapers.

Those editions have included some of the most monumental events of the 20th and 21st centuries, including five wars, the Apollo moonshots, a dozen presidents, the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union and the events of September 11.

Locally, Buck’s career spanned two consolidation attempts, Clifton Forge’s reversion to town status, Mead’s merger with Westvaco, the arrival of Walmart, the closing of Clifton Forge High School and the derecho that struck the Alleghany Highlands earlier this year.

Buck has left an indelible mark on the eastern portion of Alleghany County.

In October, both Iron Gate Town Council and Clifton Forge Town Council honored Buck for his year’s of covering council meetings.

“Buck’s been an excellent reporter,” said Iron Gate Mayor Alan Williams. “He’s taken care of me and I’ve never had a problem with anything he’s written. I’ve always said a reporter can make or break you, especially in politics.

“I think he’s helped me in what I’ve done down here. We’ve had so many good reports instead of negativity. Buck’s always been fair. I think that’s helped me when we try to get more money,” Williams added.

Iron Gate Town Council presented him with a key to the town during a reception, while Clifton Forge Town Council issued a resolution honoring Buck.

Members of council added a touch of humor to the resolution, referring to Buck as council’s “unauthorized sixth member” that “occasionally speaks out of turn,” and noted that Buck’s “alter ego sometimes reports in a more biased way in Saturday’s Virginian Review.”

Buck faithfully attends Clifton Forge Coffee Club gatherings on weekday mornings and his “alter ego” had a habit of scriptitiously using his conversations with coffee club members to generate juicy tidbits for the Shadow column.

In a feat envied by his colleagues, Buck is the only member of the Virginian Review’s news staff to be gaveled back into order during a governmental meeting. He also had a knack for trying to make a motion to adjourn a meeting after it tended to run a little long.

Town council’s resolution also noted council’s appreciation for Buck creating a “positive atmosphere and experience for all those attending town council meetings.”

“I’ve been through a lot of reporters in my time and every one brings something different to the table,” said Clifton Forge Town Manager Darlene Burcham. “You can tell Buck’s always trying to get things right. He’s very conscientious.

“He says he’s going to come to the meetings and sit in the back row and behave himself. I doubt he’ll behave,” Burcham added with a smile.

Buck and his wife, the former Katherine Campbell, are active members of Central Advent Christian Church and the Sharon Ruritan Club. Kat sings in the church choir and she has been known to write music in her spare time.

Buck and Kat have two daughters, Linda Archer, who lives in Appomattox, and Nancy Pound, who lives in Clifton Forge.

Linda is a retired school teacher and Nancy retired from the Bath County School system’s administrative staff.

After witnessing more than 60 years worth of news, Buck says he may find retirement a little boring.

“When I retire, I’ll basically do what I’m doing now,” he said. “Oh, I expect my wife will find plenty for me to do.”

Buck and Katherine, affectionately known as “Kat” to her family and friends, will celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary Nov. 20.

Tuesday will also mark another big day for Buck, as he will celebrate his 86th birthday by going to the polls and casting his vote for president.

“I guess it’ll be a big day for me and either President Obama or Romney,” he said laughingly.

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Virginian Review staff members Horton Beirne, Larry O’Rourke, Darrell Gleason and Gavin Dressler also contributed to this report.