I worked with Tim for over 10 years and whether we were debating politics, agreeing on politics (more often than not the past eight years) or just sharing stories about our daily newspaper grind I never had an uninteresting conversation with him.

When you met Tim it was easy to understand why he was such a great reporter and such a good friend. He was always interested. No matter what the subject he was interested. I could walk through our pressroom on a deadline day and ask him a question about anything and without fail he'd stop whatever he was doing and answer my question and usually ask a follow up. You never got the feeling you were interrupting him, because he was simply interested in the people and the world around him. On Monday's he'd ask me what I did over the weekend and I'd tell him about a rock show or ball game and he'd tell me about a community meeting regarding road construction on Alki with equal zeal. That's what he did; it's who he was to me.

I had some pretty frank conversations with Tim about the battle he's been waging the past year. He was older then me and I think I was hoping maybe he could impart some wisdom and insight on life and death. He had no qualms about answering questions about his life or his fight but during our last conversation on the subject he said, "Matt, I wish I could tell you something profound but really it is what it is." At the time we kind of laughed about that, but today it really seems pretty profound to me. It is what it is.

In 20 years there hasn't been a new business or new issue in West Seattle that Tim didn't give his time too. He cared about his community and really he was West Seattle's window to the rest of the world. Look over every issue of the Herald all the way back to the '80s and Tim's byline is all over most of it. When the new Statue of Liberty plaza goes up down on Alki there will be a brick that says, "Tim St. Clair: Mr. West Seattle." That's who he was and I miss him already.

Matt Lewis

Advertising Sales Manager