I had been working as a publications editor and designer at Oregon Sea Grant for about a year when an affable fellow named John Baur was brought on board in 2002 to serve as a news writer. My colleague Pat Kight, who had been handling most of the news writing and was transitioning to website and social media management, knew John as an actor in the local theater scene, in which Pat also participated as a director. Pat recommended John to our boss, Joe Cone; Joe then went through the requisite steps to run an official search for other candidates, and John ultimately bested the competition and got the job.
John was a colorful character from the get-go. His humorous banter during office encounters was a welcome relief from what could be a somber atmosphere (we studied marine issues such as ocean acidification and hypoxia, global warming, and depleted fisheries, after all), and he often had us in stitches during otherwise pedantic staff meetings.
Several months after his hiring, John and his friend Mark Summers pitched an idea they had come up with in 1995, International Talk Like a Pirate Day, to Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry of the Miami Herald. Barry liked the idea, wrote a column about it, and International Talk Like a Pirate Day was officially and indelibly launched.
Over the next several months, as word spread about International Talk Like a Pirate Day (ITLAPD) and John and Mark were being bombarded by requests for interviews, I could sense that was John starting to grow restless in his comparatively mundane position as a news writer. In fact, he himself came right out and stated as much in an interview with the local paper, the Corvallis Gazette-Times.
Oops.
The director of Oregon Sea Grant, Bob Malouf, read the article and…didn't really appreciate what John had said about his job. I believe that over the course of several subsequent conversations between John and Bob, a decision was made that John would resign in good standing so he could focus his energy on ITLAPD.
And focus he did. Over the next several years, John and Mark (with Pat Kight) created an official ITLAPD website; wrote and published several books about how to talk like a pirate and other related themes; John and his wife Tori appeared on ABC's Wife Swap (John later told me the harrowing experience almost wrecked his family, despite the $50,000 payday); and John and Mark were featured in dozens of radio, TV, newspaper, and magazine interviews and made public appearances as special guests at a variety of celebratory events across the country.
Despite capitalizing on ITLAPD to such an impressive extent, John and Mark were never quite able to earn a living at it and both had to work other jobs. I haven't followed Mark's career trajectory, but John landed a job as a newspaper editor in the Canary Islands, then transitioned to news writing for a paper in New Orleans. Now he and Tori live in Tacoma, WA, where she is a teacher and John continues writing books, promoting ITLAPD, and answering calls for interviews each September 19.
 |
| John "Ol' Chumbucket" Baur |
John and I also keep in touch with each other via Facebook, and if you want to follow someone who is not only entertaining but incredibly personable and smart, check him out at https://www.facebook.com/Talk.Like.A.Pirate.Day
Oh yeah, and...Arrrrr!
No comments:
Post a Comment