Oldham’s “generous spirit” honored

Friends and family of Darrell Oldham crowded St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle Monday to pay respects to a man who left his indelible stamp on the alternative newsweekly industry and Seattle journalism.

Oldham, co-founder of Seattle Weekly and founder of the National Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (now AAN), died Feb.16 of lung cancer. He was 64.

“Knowing Darrell, he would have been quietly pleased and probably surprised by the outpouring of affection,” says Steve McNamara, editor and publisher of Pacific Sun, the official AAN representative at the memorial service.

Also attending from current AAN ranks were Jane Levine, publisher of the Chicago Reader, and Bob Roth, the Reader’s founding editor. In addition, Ellen Cole, David Brewster, Mike Crystal, and Skip Berger, all of whom had worked with Oldham at Seattle Weekly, attended.

“Darrell loved the business and was very good at it,” McNamara said in remarks at the service. “But more than that he was a kind, ethical and loving human being. He was short on ego, long on generous spirit. As an industry we could not have been called to order by a better exemplar.”