INDIANAPOLIS ­– The Society of Professional Journalists is saddened to announce the passing of Executive Director Terry Harper, who died today after a two-year struggle with brain cancer.

Harper, who served from February 2002 through May 2009, took the helm of SPJ after a series of short-term executive directors. He helped restore stability to its headquarters operations and pushed the organization to enhance professional development training programs at the local level and train in partnership with other journalism groups.

During his dual tenure as executive director of SPJ and its non-profit educational arm, the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation, Harper marshaled the Foundation¹s financial support for a wide range of journalism, First Amendment and diversity efforts.

Though trained in association management and development, Harper liked to note that his first paying job was in journalism ­ as a paperboy for the Yukon Review in his hometown of Yukon, Okla.

A 1986 graduate of Oklahoma State University, Harper was a Certified Association Executive, a designation he earned in 1999 from the American Society of Association Executives. He had 19 years of nonprofit association management experience, including 13 years with Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, where he served as executive director from 1990-1999.

From 1999-2001 he was a financial advisor at UBS PaineWebber (now UBS Financial Services) where he worked in a partnership providing investment management consulting to nonprofit organizations and foundations.

Immediately before coming to SPJ and the SDX Foundation, Harper was the director of fundraising for the Kiwanis International Foundation.

During his battle with cancer, Harper kept a blog documenting his trials and tribulations. His humor and upbeat attitude came through in many posts. He composed his final blog message several months ago, which his wife posted today upon his passing. See the blog here.

He is survived by his wife Lee Ann and two teenage sons, Dale and Jace.

For more information, visit this page of the SPJ national website: Remembering Terry Harper.

Patty Doherty, whose husband is a culinary-institute trained chef, recently opened a restaurant in Jupiter’s Abacoa called Cooks. She promises free coffee and WiFi to SPJ / Journalists in Transition members on the first Wednesday of every month, from 9:00 a.m. till 3:00 p.m. We’re welcome to come and work on stories, set up interviews/meetings, or just talk, and squat in the place until the dinner prep starts. If we get hungry, they’ve promised to whip up something that unemployed writers could afford.

From Patty: “You never know, maybe they’d like to learn to cook? Or bartend? Or any number of different tasks a restaurant must perform…”

Cooks is at 1209 Main Street #101 in Abacoa Jupiter, Florida.
To find it: Take I-95 to Donald Ross Road, head east. At the first entrance into Abacoa, turn left and follow the signs for the town center. Cooks is on Main Street, facing Scripps and the FAU dorms, about half way down. Kitchen: 561.429.8020

We at SPJ want to say how sorry we are to all of you who lost your jobs recently and in past months.

We are starting a support group for displaced (laid off-bought out) journalists, and possibly an email listserve. Somewhere we can all share information about job leads, freelancing, health insurance, financial tips, and yes, feelings. We may have guest experts stop by, such as financial planner Laura Walsh. That’s up to you.

We will start the first group at Starbuck’s at 3305 Sheridan St., Hollywood, on Wednesday, March 25, at 7 p.m. (Please note: The date has changed to Wednesday.)

We’ve just added a second group in Miami-Dade. It will meet Tuesday, March 24, at 7 p.m. in the back room at John Martin’s Restaurant, 253 Miracle Mile, Miami.

If this is something you would be interested in, please respond to me at jkay50@hotmail.com.

Julie Kay
SPJ South Florida
Chapter President

Pedro, 44, was the treasurer of the South Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists in 2002.

He was a lifelong journalist, having worked as a sports reporter for the Hollywood Sun-Tattler, an editor at the Chicago Sun-Times and at the Fort Worth Star Telegram and lastly at the Broward edition of the Miami Herald. He also spent some time at the San Antonio Light.

I started out with Pedro in journalism at the Sun-Tattler. I was 20 and he was 19. We were friends, double dated, etc. I remember when he met his now wife, Nuvia.

Pedro battled cardiomyopathy for many years and far outlived any doctors’ predictions. He wanted to return to Florida and in 1997 asked me if I would put in a good word for him at The Herald. I did so, and he was named “hometown editor.”

But his heart condition worsened after he was put on the night shift at the Miami Herald’s downtown Miami office. After a terrible car accident driving to his home in Pembrokes Pines at 2 in the morning, even he realized (with his wife’s urging) that it was time to go on disability.

Pedro refused to be disheartened about his situation. He shifted into real estate, rehabbing apartment buildings into condos. He was almost always upbeat and smiling.

Pedro lived in a gorgeous house in western Pembroke Pines with Nuvia and his parents. The extended family – which included his cousin, Fort Lauderdale lawyer Carlos Reyes — loved their dogs, going to fancy restaurants, watching movies and supporting Republican causes.

For the last few years, it seemed like Pedro was constantly in and out of the hospital. His medications needed retooling, his pacemaker needed updating, his blood pressure dropped. That’s why I became cavalier about these hospital visits. Pedro, being such a fighter, would always pull through, I felt. I thought he had at least nine lives.

He went back and forth about whether to get a heart transplant, getting different opinions from doctors at the University of Miami and in Texas. At Miami, they said he had to lose a lot of weight first. Pedro also had concerns about undergoing such a serious and scary operation. But he ultimately was put on the transplant list, I believe.

This past year, Pedro finally beat one demon and lost 60 pounds or so on Nutri-Systems. He said his health improved dramatically and he went an entire year without being in the hospital. He was well enough to come to my birthday party in November for the first time in years. I thought he had beaten the heart condition. But I was wrong.

I and others got an email from Pedro Monday that he would be having surgery Wednesday at Broward General Medical Center, to replace the wiring around his pacemaker. It seemed like “just another hospital visit” to me and I wasn’t worried – although the fact that it would take eight or nine hours of surgery did give me pause.

I sent Pedro an email Tuesday saying, “I’ll be thinking of ya, good luck,” and he replied in an email, “thanks, baby.”

It was at about noon Wednesday that I got an email – “Pedro is not doing well, pray now!”

Something went wrong during surgery. The doctor accidentally tore an artery, then sewed it up, but Pedro’s weakened heart stopped. They tried to resuscitate him for an hour.

Pedro Abigantus died at the age of 44 Wednesday. He will be missed.