Now that I have your attention, I will start by saying what a privilege it has been to lead the Daily Freeman-Journal throughout the past three or so years. (I picture Doug Getter up in heaven rolling his eyes; you may remember that was his response when I took over this position for what I loosely described as a couple of months.)

Well, it’s time for a shift change. I write this on my final day as editor of this historic newspaper. As you read this, Kolleen Taylor is assuming leadership under the title community editor.

We have a new publisher too; Grant Gibbons, who has been enjoying Minnesota, has returned to Iowa to take over the helm of not only the DFJ, but The Messenger in Fort Dodge and the Times-Republican in Marshalltown, our sister papers. You probably already know that Publisher Terry Christensen retired in November and I wish great things for his next act.

Two new members of the City Council of Webster City are now seated: Ashley Allers and John Marvel, and we have new leadership at the Webster City Area Chamber of Commerce in Jamie Griffith. Two new members of the Webster City Community School District Board are in place: Kerry Jacobsen and Jerry Klaver.

Their plates will be full.

That is good news.

This community has increasingly come together with the intention of lifting this place to a higher standard. A direct result of that intention is its membership in the Ames Regional Economic Alliance and the subsequent creation of the Hamilton County Growth Partnership. The importance of these organizations going forward cannot be over-emphasized. If we allow it, they will be the glue that puts the disparate interests of this city and county back together as a collective force.

That is the way forward.

Looking back, what sticks in my mind most prominently is the day I walked into the front office of the DFJ looking for a job. I was young and directionless with a power greater than me looking over my shoulder. Louise Rudkin came out of the newsroom and asked: “Are you here to apply for city editor?”

That question changed everything.

It was 1977.

I learned journalism under Louise, who had been my high school journalism teacher. The class met at what was then referred to as “zero hour,” the crack of dawn, as I recall. I lived on a farm 10 miles northeast of town. Zero hour met before the buses ran. That meant Dad drove me to class every day, and I am grateful for that. I was co-editor of The School’s Journal when I was a senior.

Then aimless years went by before Louise called me home.

I learned reporting from Max Maxon, the legendary editor whose years at the DFJ are chronicled through his Amblin’ columns. On a slow news day, I remember he sent me to Woolstock to find the wild turkeys folks there claimed were harassing the town. I crossed the line into fiction on that one, I believe.

I learned investigation from G.D. Warland, the venerable news director of radio station KJFJ, KQWC’s forerunner. He was also a county magistrate court judge. I scooped him once. He told me never to do that again.

I went to Iowa State and got a journalism degree. Then, for the most part, I left Iowa for Connecticut and Colorado. Out east, I learned there really are people who believe that nothing exists in the middle of this country and, even if there was something there, it had no value. I remember one New Yorker saying to me, “Sure there’s land out there, but who’d want to live there?”

Unfortunately, that attitude still exists.

It is, of course, spectacularly wrong.

In Colorado, I learned what passion for historic preservation can accomplish from icon Dana Crawford and that upstart brewer-turned-United States Senator John Hickenlooper. I remember I first met Hickenlooper when he and his partner Charlie Woolley were pitching an industrial loft development even before Coors Field was built. I believe I told them the story of my brother fantasizing about building a replica of Cleopatra’s barge to sail down the mighty Boone. Charlie, a remarkable historic developer, has since become a dear friend. Hickenlooper has largely forgotten the story about the barge. Thank God.

Like that barge idea, I was still a bit adrift in those days and Dana remarked on it one day over lunch in her loft. Good heavens, she was a remarkable force. And, of course, she was right. Strange it is that I found the rock on which I stand once I came home to Iowa and, eventually, the DFJ.

Here, I have continually been reminded of grace and kindness through my friend Pat Powers and so many other fine people who know what that New Yorker didn’t: So many of us not only want to live in the place, we actively search for ways to make it better.

To that end, I have been privileged to nurture Bob Oliver’s uncanny drive to explain what’s going on in this community and welcome David Borer’s understanding that folks want to see pictures of their kids doing cool stuff.

You may not know that Angie Anderson, Helen Coleman and Trevor Christensen labor every day to keep the DFJ up and running. And there’s an entire crew of great people who make the broader work of this place’s press plant possible.

Oh, what a blessing it has been to work alongside every one of them.

Jane Curtis is the retired editor of the Daily Freeman-Journal.