George Gruner, a former executive editor of The Fresno Bee and senior member of a group of Bee journalists that went to jail rather than reveal their sources for a public service news story, died Sunday evening at a Fresno hospital. He was 99.
A U.S. Army veteran during World War II, Mr. Gruner devoted 44 years to journalism including 33 at The Bee. After starting as a copy editor in 1955, he rose through the ranks until being named managing editor in 1971 and executive editor in 1981. He retired in 1988.
Mr. Gruner is perhaps best known for his role in the “Bee Four” case in which he, two reporters and the city editor went to jail in 1976 to protect the confidentiality of the source of articles concerning grand jury testimony related to a government corruption case.
The “Bee Four” spent 15 days behind bars and never betrayed that confidence.
“We preserved the perception among news sources that, when The Bee gave its word about confidentiality, it kept it,” Mr. Gruner said later. “When we say we will protect them, we will.”
In recognition of his personal public service and the quality of journalism he maintained and valued, the George F. Gruner Awards for Meritorious Public Service in Journalism are awarded annually by Fresno State’s Department of Media, Communications and Journalism. The awards honor outstanding online and newspaper journalism in the central San Joaquin Valley.
“In terms of San Joaquin Valley journalists who have made a significant impact, George is right at the top,” said Jim Boren, a former Bee executive editor who now works as a media literacy adviser at Fresno State.
“All of us who’ve worked at The Fresno Bee are branches of the George Gruner tree. He established quality journalism and invested in good people. We are all a part of his legacy.”
Congressman Jim Costa, who represented Fresno in the State Legislature from 1978 to 2002 before shifting to Capitol Hill, recalled Mr. Gruner as a “classic, old school journalist.”
“George understood the importance of a free press and newspapers that people read daily,” Costa said. “Big stories with state and national significance were always a part of the paper. Medium and smaller stories that involved our Valley communities were just as important. He had integrity and made a difference.”
Early origins
Mr. Gruner was born in Alameda in 1925 and attended public school in Oakland. His first journalism job, at age 17, was as a “gummer” for the Oakland Post-Examiner. The job required him to take two strips of paper with text from a teletype machine, then glue them together with gum paste in the correct order for transmission to linotype machine operators, who then converted the text into “hot type” cast with molten metal.
After the Post-Examiner’s editor discovered Mr. Gruner was too young for employment, young George “walked a few blocks down the street” and found similar work with the Oakland Tribune.
At 18, Mr. Gruner entered the Army and was shipped overseas to England, France and Germany, where he served in an anti-aircraft artillery unit during World War II. He served briefly under General George Patton and was among U.S. forces overrun during the early stages of the Battle of the Bulge.
After the war, Mr. Gruner returned to the Oakland Tribune and became a reporter. It was then that he met his future wife, Irene, a fellow reporter and Sanger native. The couple traveled to Europe in 1952, where Mr. Gruner worked for Stars & Stripes, before they returned to California seeking work.
Mr. Gruner found a job on The Bee’s copy desk in 1955, then shifted to the city desk and moved up the editor ranks.
In 1976, Mr. Gruner, along with Bee reporters Bill Patterson and reporter Joe Rosato, and city editor James Bort, were jailed for refusing a Superior Court judge’s order to name a confidential source who provided The Bee with sealed transcripts of a grand jury hearing.
The Bee published stories quoting the transcripts, which cited testimony by a Fresno city council member saying he was paid by a company to take over the city’s garbage removal services. The testimony had been sealed after the council member and others involved were indicted on conspiracy and bribery charges.
California’s shield law, which helps protect journalists from having to name confidential sources, became stronger after the “Bee Four” journalists were released.
After retiring from The Bee, Mr. Gruner authored three books on California and military history including a retrospective of Hammer Field in Fresno, the focal point of Central California’s military effort during World War II.
Until the last year of his life, Mr. Gruner continued to make annual appearances at the Gruner Awards ceremony. His fiery addresses on the importance of journalism as “the essential tool in the delivery of truth” were always a highlight of the evening.
“He was always there,” Boren said. “At age 99, he was still there. He would not miss those Gruner Awards for any reason. It shows his commitment to the cause. He was a special guy.”
Gruner Awards speech
During the 2017 awards ceremony, Mr. Gruner delivered the following address:
“I remember the good old days – pencil and paper, typewriters, upright phones, telephone booths – ‘Hello sweetheart, get me rewrite.’ Those days are gone. Times have changed. But what has not changed is you. The key tool in newsrooms is not the computer. It still is the human element – the desire to get the facts, whatever they tell us. All the examples of outstanding work exhibited here tonight are products of that essential element – the reporter, man or woman, who has that burning desire, no matter how successfully concealed, to serve the public interest by laying out the facts.
“Robert Reich, professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, recently said that today your job is bigger than ever, that under present conditions our democracy will depend on an independent press discovering the truth and holding someone accountable. That was true in my era but today you – the indispensable tool in the American news industry – have an even more vital duty to deliver the truth wherever it takes you.
“In this time of assaults on the media, cries of bias, allegations of fake news and alternate facts, and even charges the press is an enemy of the American people, your job is the same now as it was then: the pursuit of the truth.
“I remember on the day of President Kennedy’s assassination, a newscaster had mixed reports on the president’s condition. Obviously upset by the lack of information, he turned away from the camera and shouted, ‘Go find out!’
“I never forgot that moment, nor should you, whatever tools of the trade become standard or whatever manifestation the news business takes.
“My advice as an old hand in the news-gathering game is this: When you get that call to deliver facts for a story, big or small, remember you are the essential tool in the delivery of truth.
“And, go find out!”
Mr. Gruner was preceded in death by his wife, Irene, and is survived by his son, Richard Gruner of Santa Monica, and two granddaughters. No funeral services are planned. Mr. Gruner’s remains have been donated to the Willed Body Program at UC San Francisco. A celebration of his life will be held Oct. 26 at 11:00 am in the Tolladay Theater at The Terraces at San Joaquin Gardens.
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