by Joseph RADDER
Bob Buyer has been active in the newspaper industry for two thirds of his
nearly 75 years.
The first few years were as a paper boy delivering up to 250 daily newspapers in the
Jamaica section of New York City.
After World War II, and earning degrees from Queens College and the University of
Missouri, he switched to writing for newspapers instead of delivering them.
He arrived in Western New York in 1952 and spent a year in Jamestown
before signing on with the former Buffalo Evening News, now simply The Buffalo News.
Bob brought with him the wide-eyed curiosity and wonderment of a city boy
who had no idea what rural people thought and did.
“I think I did know which end of the cow supplied the milk, but
little else about what happens on dairy farms, in fruit orchards, in corn fields, in
forests and maple woods--all the places that put food on the table. It was a long time
before I learned that a pickle is nothing more than a sexy cucumber.”
His learning was enhanced by meeting the people who make the farms work,
the schools teach, the industries thrive and the people dedicated to helping others.
Those experiences, ever green in his thoughts, have inspired his personal life’s strategy: “Life is for living and doing, not watching and waiting.”
Joseph Radder is a freelance writer.