Boss, Mentor, Friend.

The man who gave me a career, and ultimately, a family.

It’s amazing how a complete stranger can transform your life. In 2002, I was a working schlub at the NBC affiliate in Yakima, WA. For three years, I had worked as a “one-man-band” reporter- shooting my own video, covering minor house fires and getting paid peanuts for the privilege. With a few exceptions, I was covering stories that I didn’t find interesting and playing the part of the “serious-and-here-to-scare-the-pants-off-you news guy”. In short, I was working in TV, but forced to act like someone that I was not. That all changed the day I came home to find the baritone voice of Greg Koelfgen on my answering machine.
You see, my dream at the time was to be a TV feature reporter. I’ve always been a fun-loving, slightly creative guy, and I wanted a job where I could cover fun and positive stories. Unfortunately, there are very few full-time feature reporting jobs out there (for example, in Portland, there are two- maybe three total). One day, while perusing a TV jobs website, I found a posting for a feature reporting job at KABB in San Antonio, TX. I immediately slammed together a resume tape of some old clips, and had it in the mail by that afternoon. I wasn’t kidding myself: news directors get hundreds of tapes whenever there is any kind of opening, and through the years I had been turned down for less-desirable “hard news” jobs in towns like Greensboro, NC. I did not expect a call. But, hey, you never know, right?
I almost fainted when I heard Greg’s voice on the answering machine that day. I called him right back. I was so full of adrenaline, my words were flying a mile a minute- we’re talking Vince Vaughn on speed. Long story short: I got the job and have now worked as a full-time feature reporter for almost nine years.
But that’s not the end of the story. It turned out, not only did I get a great job, but I got one hell of a boss. “Great Guy” doesn’t do Greg Koelfgen justice. During my four years at KABB, I never heard him raise his voice or utter an unkind word about anybody. He learned what your strengths were, and then helped you to make the most of your talents. Greg would encourage me to report on my various interests like movies and video games, because he felt that my innate enthusiasm would make for better segments. And if he did have criticisms, it always came in the middle of what my wife dubbed a “compliment sandwich”. Greg was proof that you didn’t need to be an a-hole to succeed in the cutthroat world of television news. And he was very succesful. KABB had (relatively speaking) a shoe-string operating budget, but through Greg’s vision the station still cranked out an extremely popular and profitable television product. Today it is one of the top-performing Fox affiliates in the country.
Greg didn’t just change my career path- he changed my personal life as well. You see, when I arrived at KABB, I met a cute reporter (with Northwest ties) named Jenny Hansson. She is now my wife and the mother of my children. Just like me, Jenny owes much of her success to Greg’s supportive nature. He was the first person to ever allow her to anchor a newscast (she had exclusively been an on-the-scene reporter). By the time she left KABB, Jenny was hired as a full-time anchor and is now the host of a lifestyles show in Portland. There is no question that we would not be where we are (professionally or personally) without Greg Koelfgen’s guidance and friendship.
And I don’t use the word “friendship” idly. Yes, we were his employees- but Greg cared for us as people first. In February of 2005, I was going through a very difficult period. I was having terrifying episodes where I thought I was going to have a heart attack and die. I would recover, and then be terrified that another episode was around the corner. Then the sensation would come again, and I was sure that I was dying. It was a non-stop cycle of fear. Finally, Jenny took me to the emergency room, where I was dripping in sweat and freaking out. It turned out, I was having panic attacks.
Are you kidding me? This was all in my head? I was beyond embarrassed. Unfortunately, one of these attacks required me to take a sick day from work. I had to tell Greg why, and there was no way I was going to lie to the man who had given me so much. So, I explained that “I was just freaking out”. Greg was quick to correct me. It turned out, members of his immediate family had also dealt with panic disorder. He knew first hand that it could be debilitating, and he knew the only thing that could make it better was time and treatment. I should point out that this was during February “Sweeps”- one of the most important months of the year when advertising revenue rates are set. In TV, you do not take time off during sweeps. I mean EVER. But Greg insisted that I take the necessary time off to treat my problem. He didn’t care that I was working on heavily-promoted “American Idol” tie-ins. Greg’s first priority was my personal well-being, and if the newscast took a little hit, it took a little hit.
I can tell you that kind of empathy is not easily found in the television news business. I have been very lucky to have great, understanding bosses- but Greg took it to another level. And because of that, I did some of the best work of my career while working for Greg. It’s not that I was worried that he would yell at me if I screwed up- he would never do that. But, I felt a need to justify the faith that he had in me. He was, simply, an inspiring leader.
You can probably guess where I’m going with this. Last night, Greg passed away. It was completely out-of-the-blue, and we still don’t know what happened. I didn’t get a minute of sleep last night. Jenny and I are devastated. So too are our friends and former co-workers at KABB.
No matter how many words I write, I will never be able to truly express what Greg Koelfgen meant to me. There are so many things I’m leaving out:
Like the fact that he was an incredible journalist and an amazing writer. I can remember a time when Greg wrote a feature story that was so funny and clever, I felt like an absolute novice.
The man knew his rock-and-roll and his baseball. I mean, Greg was almost twenty years older than I was, but he was way hipper than me when it came to the latest bands. He was an Orioles fan, which didn’t give him a lot of reasons to celebrate. But hey, you sure couldn’t accuse him of being a bandwagon fan.
And like me, Greg was a devoted husband and proud father. He coached his daughters’ softball teams, and I swear he must have driven to every diamond in the state of Texas. There was no question the man loved his job, but I’m pretty sure Greg would give anything to spend a couple hours with his girls on the open road, driving to a tournament in College Station or Round Rock.
In recent years, Jenny and I kept in touch with Greg, despite our distance in miles (well, Jenny did most of the keeping-in-touch. I’m pretty useless in that department). We had left San Antonio in 2006, because we wanted to return to the Northwest and our families. But we would often reminisce about our times at KABB, which were some of the best years of our lives. In 2008, we took our daughter Siena to see the old crew in the Lone Star State (baby Josie wasn’t born yet). Uncle Greg was beaming as he held a life that he helped make possible.
Today, as my girls grow older, I hope that I can teach and guide them in a way that would make my mentor proud. Greg Koelfgen was an incredible Television News Director, but as far as I’m concerned, his most memorable lessons had nothing to do with TV or Journalism. He taught me how to treat people. He taught me how to be a real man and a real father.
More than anything, he taught me how to live a good life.

Advertisement