Lou Panos
I don’t plan on doing this often but in light of the fact that County Executive Jim Smith honored Lou Panos today with a proclamation (you can read about that here), I wanted to share one story about Lou.
I worked my first newspaper job back in 1987 at the tender age of 19. I met Lou the following year. He was on a media panel asking questions at a debate between incumbent Republican Rep. Helen Delich Bentley and Joseph Bartenfelder, the Democratic challenger.
I found myself on the panel after my more qualified editor bowed out due to illness.
I don’t remember the question that provoked Bentley, but after the debate Bentley came flying off the stage and into my face. Her question was peppered with expletives (she did work at the port, you know) demanding to know who told me to ask that question.
I was paralyzed. The tirade continued for a moment and abated.
Lou then approached and patted me on the back.
“Is that your first time meeting the congresswoman?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Don’t worry, that’s everyone’s first meeting with her,” he said with a smile and walked away.
Fourteen years later, I was hired to fill the position Lou was leaving for semiretirement but would continue on at Patuxent as a columnist until earlier this year. It was an amazing opportunity and a dream of mine.
To this day, people still ask me about Lou. He knew everyone, and his institutional knowledge, which he freely passed on, is endless. He was always humble about his work and I often heard him, while speaking to sources, introduce himself as “Lou Panos, boy reporter.”
He is irreplaceable, and for me, doing this job that was once his feels a lot like being a child walking around the house in his father’s shoes.