MCALLEN — Steve Fagan, a Navy veteran and journalist whose career started in 1970 and who spent 11 years as editor of The Monitor, died at Saturday evening after complications from a second battle with pneumonia and recovery from lung cancer while at Community North Hospital in Indianapolis. He was 74.
“Steve Fagan was an extremely passionate journalist,” Stephan Wingert, publisher and editor for The Monitor, remembered about Fagan. “He was keenly aware of the important role newspapers and quality journalism play in our communities. In his time as editor of The Monitor he mentored and fostered the careers of numerous reporters, and his legacy lives on in their work. Steve will be greatly missed.”
Fagan’s Facebook page, was filled with comments and memories from former co-workers, friends and others who came to know Fagan throughout his 40-plus years as an “old-school” editor. He was described as brash, colorful, unapologetic, but also as a caring coach, a mentor and a friend. Fagan was known for giving journalists a second chance and watching them grow under his mentorship.
“Steve Fagan was quite the character as most people know if they’ve spent any time around him,” said former Monitor Publisher Ray Stafford, who hired Fagan at The Monitor. “Steve was proud of his past work helping reporters grow and his emphasis on local coverage. We both shared those goals and felt his addition to the newspaper’s management would be a positive step.
“He also loved politics in any form, although the paper’s ownership at the time emphasized Libertarian views on the editorial pages. Steve managed to work under those conditions although I’m sure it was stressful for him, given his liberal views. I’m saddened at his passing, but know full well he is most likely giving someone hell in that next life.”
Fagan became editor of The Monitor in 2001. In 2011, the newspaper was named Texas Newspaper of the Year in its circulation category by the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors.
Prior to coming to The Monitor, Fagan served as editor at The Morning News in Florence, South Carolina, and The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Illinois. Since his journalism career began in 1970, Fagan helped oversee projects that won two public service Pulitzer Prizes — at The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1983, and in 1985 at the Star-Telegram in Fort Worth.
“I really enjoyed my almost 12 years as editor at The Monitor,” Fagan said at the time. “I love the paper, I love the staff and I love the community, but with 43 years in the business and approaching my 69th birthday, I just feel it’s time for a change.”
Fagan was known for his passion and his “old school” style of leading a newsroom, mixing fire and brimstone like a Southern Baptist pastor with calm and inspiring like a father to the young reporters he fostered and directed.
“Steve was the best editor I have had the pleasure of working with in my 40 years in the newspaper business. Not because he won a plethora of awards for his journalistic prowess – although he consistently did that,” said M. Olaf Frandsen, publisher of the Salina Journal in Kansas, who worked with Fagan as The Monitor publisher from 2002-2012. “Rather, because he truly understood and practiced community journalism. He was focused on his readers in all he did.
“That’s the mark of a great editor.”
Under Fagan’s guidance, The Monitor was named the state’s Newspaper of the Year in the 30,000 to 124,999 Sunday circulation size category.
“I can hardly begin to describe how pleased I am with every one of these awards, and I am particularly grateful to the judges for selecting The Monitor as the Newspaper of the Year for our circulation size,” Fagan said at the time. “It is a particular honor to receive the Newspaper of the Year award when you consider the competition The Monitor is up against in its circulation-size category.
“In the industry, we refer to each day’s newspaper as ‘the daily miracle.’ It comes out only as a matter of teamwork by everyone who works at a newspaper, whether in the newsroom, the pressroom, or in the advertising, circulation or business departments. The thing that I have learned in my more than 10 years at The Monitor is that we have, from top to bottom and from department to department, one of the best teams in the business.”
Fagan leaves behind his wife Gail and twin daughters Lauren and Stephanie. When he wasn’t working for the betterment of the community at the newspaper, Fagan also had a passion for playing poker, cooking and golfing.
“We hit it off right way. Steve and Gail attended my backyard BBQs and Steve would bring the best salmon covered with bourbon honey glaze, or homemade chili during the winter football games and delicious exotic salads,” said Cynthia Sakulenzki, president and CEO of the RGV Hispanic Chamber. “He was an expert card player and normally walked away with most of the money at our poker parties. His outlook on life was forever bright. He called a spade a spade and never held back. Heaven better have a poker table.”