SOMERSET – John Moss and deadlines were made for each other.
In his four-and-a-half decades as a reporter at The Herald News, Moss got the facts and presented them clearly and quickly. Happy was the copy editor who, with press time looming, was blessed to be editing Moss’ work. The so-called cleaning-up process with a John Moss article was brief, or non-existent.
Respected and trusted by so many during his newspaper career, most of that as the police reporter, Moss died on Tuesday morning. The longtime Somerset resident was 73. He retired from The Herald News in 2011.
“John was a professional in every sense of the word,” Curt Brown, a Herald News reporter from 1978-2000 and now a reporter with The Standard Times of New Bedford, wrote in an email. “He was quiet and kept to himself mostly. He was a man who followed his routine religiously. He would take his Barracuda-style jacket off. Turn on his computer. Tidy up his desk. Rearrange his pens and pencils all together. Making sure his daughter's picture was arranged just so. Sip his morning Dunkin Donuts coffee. Get to work. His work habits were admirable.
“When The Herald News was an afternoon paper, the deadline was at 10 and John never missed a deadline unless it was for a breaking story.”
“He was a great guy,” said retired Fall River Police Department Det. Tom Chace, whose brother-in-law is married to Moss’ daughter, Kerry Souza. “He would never hurt anybody. He was a fair reporter.”
Mike Wiley of Somerset, a retired FRPD officer, was also saddened by word of Moss’ death.
“He was always a good man, always respectful and just an all-around nice guy,” Wiley said. “He didn’t have a bad word to say about anyone, at least not around me.”
Wiley said Moss was very respected by members of the FRPD, from top to bottom, that off-the-record information given to Moss was treated as such, and if a cop shared info with the understanding it might be able be used in print in the future, Moss would always check back with his source before using it.
“He respected the uniform,” Wiley said.
For his retirement in 2011, Moss was presented a citation by then Fall River Police Chief Daniel Racine and an antique press badge by then Tiverton Police Chief Thomas Blakey.
At his Herald News retirement party, he was gifted with an ordinate, large-print Bible. Moss frequently read scripture during his job breaks. Brown liked to recall how once, in the newsroom, after an exasperated boss cried out, “Jesus Christ!”, Moss answered, “He’s coming.”
Off the beat, Moss was an accomplished runner and golfer. He was a conspicuous part of Greater Fall River’s golden age of road racing, back in the 1970s when 5ks were virtually non-existent and the popular races ranged from 10k to marathon.
Paul Coogan, Fall River mayor, was also part of that running boom and enjoyed Moss’ company. He said he tended to agree with a report that Moss had run at least one marathon in the 2:40s.
“He was at all the races. He loved racing and he loved running,” Coogan said. “John was a real solid guy. He always seemed like a real high-integrity guy. He was an interesting person. Training or just being around you could always have a good conversation with him. He was very, very smart.”
“In his running heyday,” Brown wrote, “he would run County Street/Route 138 from Somerset into Dighton. He would jokingly ask other reporters assembled in the newsroom if they had any mail they wanted delivered.”
Moss the golfer had two stints as a member at Fall River Country Club and one as a member at Montaup Country Club in Portsmouth, R.I. Combining two of his recreational loves, Moss would sometimes follow 18 holes at Montaup by running home to Somerset. Moss, if this reporter's memory is sound, once shot a 69 at FRCC.
Chace occasionally played as a guest at FRCC with Moss. In one memorable round, Chace, not an overly polished golfer, recorded a hole-in-one on the eighth hole at FRCC. Chace thought he had hit his tee shot over the green and was searching near the ninth tee. “John looked in the cup and asked me what did you hit? I said I don’t know. He said it’s in the cup,” Chace recalled.
Moss over the final few years of his life was afflicted with both Parkinson’s disease and dementia. His wife, Evelyn, said that while running was his passion, his love of golf remained long after he could no longer play. She said sometimes she would see her husband sitting, his hand in a position as if it were gripping a golf club.
With the care of Evelyn and daughters Rebecca Provost and Souza and hospice, Moss lived at home to his death.
Email Greg Sullivan@gsullivan@heraldnews.com. Follow him @GregSullivanHN.