She cared about our readers. Whether it was an easy-to-read recipe, a list of best gardening practices or a well-written play review, Melanie Munk intended to provide good information for Everett Daily Herald subscribers.
Munk, the Herald’s features editor from 1998 until her retirement in 2014, died April 10 in Everett. She was 64.
“She was an exacting editor who insisted on the highest standards,” said Herald news editor Mark Carlson. “She had no tolerance for ‘good-enough’ work. She was dedicated to doing the best job she could for Herald readers.”
Opinion page editor Jon Bauer agreed.
“Melanie was a good editor because she had an appreciation for what everyone else did in putting a newspaper together, and she appreciated ambitious work,” Bauer said. “Reporters on up to managing editors never wanted to be on the wrong end of an eye roll from Melanie.”
Carlson also recalled Munk’s keen mind.
“Melanie was super-smart,” he said. “And like most super-smart people, she also was super-funny.”
Many of us on the staff of the newspaper couldn’t get through the day without a belly laugh arising from Munk’s sharp wit. Her office also was a sanctuary of sorts and her door always open, sports editor Kevin Brown said. “She was a favorite,” he said.
The open exchange meant there was always a chance to talk more about a story, music, a movie or “what we each might have cooked at home that weekend,” Bauer said.
Former colleagues Carol MacPherson and Christina Harper remembered Munk’s carefully planned gifts of food.
Munk had her devoted Herald “family,” which included her “posse” of co-workers Jan Good and Mary Lowry and her longtime colleague Sally Birks.
But she was equally devoted to her own family and lived in the same Mill Creek-area neighborhood as her sister, Meredith Munk, brother-in-law, Tom Blair, and mother, Donna Munk. Her nephew, Peter Clarke, lived in Everett.
With her family and friends, she enjoyed reading, cooking, entertaining, pop culture, movies and holidays.
Munk was born Sept. 14, 1952, in Watsonville, California, where she graduated from Mora High School. She attended Santa Clara University and Cabrillo College in California. The Watsonville-Santa Cruz area was Munk’s favorite place in the world.
She began her journalism career working for her hometown newspaper, the Register-Pajaronian. She enjoyed telling the story (one of so many great stories) of publishing the paper the day after the infamous Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. The quake shut down their newspaper office, so Munk and other staffers drove to a nearby city to use a sister newspaper’s equipment. Their newspaper was delivered on time.
Munk started working at The Everett Herald in 1995. During nearly 20 years at the newspaper, she held several positions. The highlight of her career was as features editor. She added several sections, including Home &Garden, Travel &Leisure and Outdoors, and she kept Food and A&E going strong. She also produced quarterly magazines on seniors and health.
Along the way, she encouraged reporters in her department to further their careers.
Victor Balta, now director of the University of Washington Office of News and Information, was one of those people who was lucky enough to have Munk as a life coach.
“Melanie was all but single-handedly responsible for the most significant advance in my career in journalism and news, including what I do today, and I know I’m not alone,” Balta said. “She was a mentor to so many journalists who came through The Herald, recognizing potential that many of us might not have even seen in ourselves.”
Ashley Stewart, who is now a reporter at the Puget Sound Business Journal, came to The Herald as an intern from Everett Community College, where she was a teen Running Start student. Munk encouraged Stewart to attend the University of Washington.
“She was tough on me, and she helped me do it all,” Stewart said. “And she was kind. When I was headed to California on a trip, she pulled out $40 from her purse so I could get a meal at her favorite restaurant.”
Birks and Munk were inseparable as colleagues and friends.
“She had endless ideas for stories, new sections, columns, whatever blank sheet of paper we were faced with. We worked hard and we had fun,” Birks said. “We would trade paperback mysteries, watch old movies or drive to Darrington to buy a flat of blueberries because they were in season. I miss our long phone conversations when one of our phones usually died.”
No formal services are planned.
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