Reader: Ed Quillen had humor and common sense in equal amounts

By Michael Roberts Wed., Jun. 6 2012 at 10:27 AM

Categories: Comment of the Day

Ed Quillen.

The tributes continue to roll in for Salida's Ed Quillen, a veteran contributor to the Denver Post who died of a heart attack on Sunday.

Here's a sample -- a salute to a specific column that demonstrated the qualities that set Quillen apart from the lion's share of his peers.

Brian Martinez writes:

Same here. I loved his columns on the state's history. One of my favorites (here) was where he pointed out (during another flare-up of the "official English" debate) that the state's constitution was originally published in English, Spanish, *and* German, and it required all new laws to be published in those languages until 1890. It was nonsense, therefore, to think that having multiple "official" languages was some hindrance to societal cohesion. As he observed, "note that when we had a Civil War, both sides spoke the same language."
He had ample humor and common sense in equal amounts, and applied them to every story he wrote about. How many journalists can we say that about these days?

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