Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Newspaper mainstay Hugh Sarrels dies at his Jarales home

Lloyd Jojola Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer

Hugh Sarrels was a down-to-earth person in a fast-paced business, a colleague said. Another called him a mentor, one who treated his employees with fairness.

And to his family he was very much the patriarch. "He was our papa," said Sandy Blaine, his daughter.

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Sarrels, former operations director for Albuquerque Publishing Company, died Monday — 50 years to the day after he started his career with the company.

Sarrels retired as operations director in 1992, but continued to serve as a consultant to Albuquerque Publishing Company and Number Nine Media Inc., which publishes the Valencia County News-Bulletin, El Defensor Chieftain and the Mountain View Telegraph.

"A newspaperman's newspaperman," is how T.H. Lang, president and publisher of the Albuquerque Journal, described Sarrels.

The Jarales resident was 78.

Services will take place Friday at Peralta Memorial United Methodist Church, 25 Wesley Road, just off N.M. 47 in Peralta. The family will begin receiving friends at noon. A celebration of life service will take place at 1 p.m. Interment will follow at Terrace Grove Cemetery.

"I and the Albuquerque Publishing Company will miss his presence," Lang said. "He was a tireless advocate for our industry.

"He never really retired. He loved the business and staff too much so he continued to consult for our weekly newspapers."

Dave Puddu, vice president/chief operating officer of Number Nine Media, called Sarrels a rare breed.

"... In this fast-paced business, he was still a real down-to-earth person. A rare combination."

Hugh Conway Sarrels was born in Bannon, Ariz., but called many places home while coming of age.

"He lived in Arizona and Texas and Mexico and Argentina, Peru," Blaine said, explaining that her father was the son of a mining engineer. "He was very well-traveled as a young boy."

Sarrels enlisted in the Navy when he was 17 — he lied about his age so he could join, his daughter said — and served two tours during the Korean conflict. He also studied for two years at the University of Texas-El Paso.

Sarrels and his wife, Betty, married in 1955 and moved from Reserve to Albuquerque, where Sarrels launched his career with APC.

"He found the work exciting and loved it from the very first," Blaine said about her father's work with the company. "He loved the (Lang) family. ... He had a very special relationship with both Tom and Bill."

As T.H. Lang noted, "Hugh was like a brother to me — a brother I loved to be with."

Sarrels started out as an advertising salesman with the publishing company in 1958. He was promoted to manager of the Heights advertising office before being named advertising director in 1975. He became operations director in 1986.

"He was a heckuva guy," said Brian Fantl, Albuquerque Publishing Co. general manager, who was a personal friend of Sarrels' as well. "He was kind of like a father, a mentor.

"I think he cared for everybody. He treated everybody fairly.

"He knew most everybody back then, and everybody knew him. ... He was well-respected in his job when he became operations director."

Puddu met Sarrels when T.H. Lang bought the News-Bulletin and El Defensor Chieftan seven years ago.

"He was somewhat of a mentor helping me negotiate the corporate culture," Puddu said, noting that they became close friends, golfing together and enjoying each others' families. "He was like a father to me, and I loved him."

Sarrels took on everything, including his outside enjoyments, with gusto, Blaine said. First it was trap shooting, later it was golf.

"He loved the game of golf," she said.

In fact, Puddu and Sarrels were on the winning team in the recent Michelle "Mike" Moore Invitational golf tournament in Belen. "We were all pretty excited," said Puddu. "It was a great memory to have."

Sarrels, a Christian who was strong in his faith, was part of a close-knit family.

"He was very much the grandfather of our little clan," his daughter said.

Sarrels' survivors include his wife of 53 years, Betty Sarrels; daughter, Sandy Blaine and her husband, Tom, of Jarales; brother, Jim Sarrels of Chicago; grandchildren, Christopher Lee Blaine, Caitlyn Noel Blaine and Samuel Conway Blaine.

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