Welcome back to Thebeerchaser. If you are seeing this post through an e-mail, please visit the blog by clicking on the title at the top to see all of the photos so the narrative is not clipped or shortened. (External photo attribution at the end of the post #)

In past “Beerchasing Miscellany” blog posts (those not on a bar or brewery, but just my random reflections), I’ve often used alliteration in the title featuring the month of publication.  Examples include January Jammin, February Flashbacks, Ambling in April, May Musings, May Meanderings, June Juxtapositions, Jumping in June, October Origins, Thanksgiving Thoughts, November Nuances…..you get the idea.

The topics in these include my coffee chat with the West Linn Police Chief Peter Mahuna and subsequent ride-along with a City police officer.  I offered thoughts on the Oregon State vs. Oregon football games (I still call it the politically incorrect “Civil War rivalry”) and told you about the musical choices in my collection ranging from Big Band to Country Western. 

There was my visit to a wonderful breakfast diner in Canby, Oregon – that being Pappy’s Greasy Spoon. And when nostalgia overcame me during the pandemic and I couldn’t go to dive bars, I even tried to glorify high school memories at Oregon City High School (e.g. placing an outhouse on the roof of the school as a senior prank – see story below from the now defunct Oregon City Enterprise Courier.

A Departure?

The title of this June post is a bit of a deviation from the awful alliteration in the past.  I’ll explain the “ubiquitous” reference below, but it’s meant to highlight a recent reunion with two good friends Kirby Neumann-Rea and Craig “The Dude” Hanneman – the latter going back to college days at Oregon State University in the late ’60’s. 

The story of our triangular connection reveals how life’s events weave their way through our existence and enrich our routines – sometimes many years later.

Kirby’s wife, Lorre Chester-Rea is the sister of the late, Gary Kestler USMC – my best friend and neighbor in high school (and a fellow outhouse prankster – see above) who was killed in Viet Nam in 1967. Lorre and Gary’s dad, the late Robert Chester, who served as Oregon City Police Chief for many years, was the best man in my 1980 wedding.

I have written about The Dude a number of times in this blog, relating our time as roommates in the SAE house at Oregon State in 1969, his affinity for Dean Martin, his football history as an All-American for the Beavers and then defensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers including an indirect and unintentional role in the 1972 Immaculate Reception.

Also, his affinity for Dean Martin and his summiting of Mt Everest in 2012 and eventually all of the Seven Summits.  (I should also mention that he loved to play Dean Martin tunes in our study room – incessantly. (#1 – #3)

Kirby and the News!!

The foundation of this story originates forty-four years ago in Dallas, Oregon – shortly after Kirby graduated from Linfield College in McMinnville.  He was a cub reporter for the Polk County Itemizer-Observer – a weekly newspaper.

Kirby’s reporting endeavors actually go back further as he explained in a May 16, 2025 article in the McMinnville News Register – the fifth paper on Kirby’s journalistic journey (as evidenced in the photo below) and where he retired as Managing Editor on March 31st:

“I started as a paperboy more than 50 years ago, for the old East Side Journal in Kirkland, Washington. My first writing experiences were as an eighth-grade stringer for the Sammamish Valley News, in Redmond, Washington, then as a journalist for the paper at South Albany High in Oregon.”  (#4 – #6)

Kirby left the Dallas paper after several years and traveled overseas, then took a job at the Molalla Pioneer – another weekly, in 1985.  Fate had it that he would then return to the Dallas Itemizer Observer (he was probably enchanted and curious about the name of the paper…).

Kirby had gained enough credibility at his paper by that time to have a column he called “Scrapbook” – observations and insights laid out in an eclectic narrative – a feature, he stated, he was blessed to continue during his entire career.

One of his responsibilities was covering the meetings of the Polk County Commission.  Enter The Dude, who after his NFL career, went home to Turner, Oregon to manage his family’s farm and then successfully ran for a four-year term as Commissioner (1985-1989).

Well, one of the items Kirby mentioned in a 1989 “Scrapbook” post was about a Dallas Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting.  Evidently, this meeting was a weekly highlight for the city of then 9,500 people as this excerpt from his column states.  Craig Hanneman was also mentioned, and the column shows Kirby’s respect for The Dude. (#7)

“The room was cramped; the twenty-people who attended represented the largest gathering at any breakfast forum in recent memory.”

And this next paragraph is where Kirby’s erudition as a wordsmith started a “story” that would idiosyncratically continue with some gaps for over forty years.

“…Mike Propes of Willamina, Republican candidate for Polk County Commissioner…came with his mother, Alice Propes, armed with his ubiquitous sepia-tone campaign brochures and a sore throat.  (emphasis added)

…..Commissioner Craig Hanneman was one of those who declined breakfast as he prepared to hear the words of the two men who want his job. (Hanneman declined to run for re-election.) Or perhaps he has no room for the Cholesterol Special, what with all the fire in his belly.

He’s always had gastrointestinal coals, but Hanneman seems feistier than normal as the end of his time as commissioner approaches.  Perhaps he’s experiencing ‘short-timer syndrome’ in reverse. 

I don’t envy anyone who crosses Hanneman between now and Jan 1; a man of strong convictions (and usually the information to back it up), he is determined to leave office as active as the day he began four years ago.”

….Wavering on an issue in front of Hanneman is like pitching underhand to Jose Canseco.”

Well, as both Neumann-Rea and Hanneman relate the story, the Dude called Kirby after the story appeared and laughingly said something to the effect of:

“Damn Kirby.  You taught me a new word.  I’m a farm boy from Turner and have never seen or heard the word ‘ubiquitous.’  (Note: That may also have been true for most of us who went to an aggie university!)   I had to go to the County Judge’s chambers and look in his dictionary.”

And as the story goes, from that meeting until the end of his term in office later that year, The Dude worked in the word “ubiquitous” at every Commission session.

It’s a Small World

I had stayed in touch with Lorre Chester-Rea and her mother over the years and met Kirby once when they were living in Hood River and he was working for the Hood River News. I had no idea that he knew Craig Hanneman.

Craig and I have had periodic phone calls and beers from the time he returned to Oregon. Several years ago, when we were probably having a draft Budweiser at a dive bar – I think I was kidding him about his limited vocabulary and the name Kirby Neumann-Rea and the ubiquitous story was related.

We laughed at the connection and decided the three of us needed to have a Beerchasing reunion.  That occurred at a McMinnville brewery in March 2023 as shown in the photo below

It Doesn’t End There…

From that point on, we would send each other headlines or articles with our favorite word such as the one at the start of this post that the Dude sent last month from an article about the Willamina School District and those shown below. 

Craig is even sending copies of letters-to-the-editor from the Wall Street Journal! The opportunities are manifold as the present usage of this word is ……“always appearing or found everywhere.” (Roget’s Thesaurus)

The conclusion – at least for now – was at an event in May celebrating Kirby’s retirement as Managing Editor of the McMinnville News Register and his robust journalistic career.  Craig Hanneman was a speaker and I attended as a guest.

The event was filled with Kirby’s family, friends and colleagues from the papers he served for forty-four years.  Of course, The Dude related the “ubiquitous” story and presented Kirby with a copy of the original “Scrapbook” column shown above. (He ignored my suggestion, that he end his oration by advising Kirby to remember that “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime“.)

The Importance of Community Newspapers

Kirby’s contribution to five different community newspapers in Oregon is remarkable and laudable.  As Craig Hanneman stated:

“He made every paper he worked at better and the observations and insights from his Scrapbook column were unlike anybody else’s.”

And as well stated in the Tidewater News blog, these publications are critical – many have disappeared given the proliferation of digital and social media.

“In an age dominated by global news and social media, the value of local news often gets overshadowed. However, local journalism plays a crucial role in shaping communities, fostering democracy, and keeping citizens informed.”

Kirby Neumann-Rea’s role in these institutions is solid, plus it led to an even more important legacy as he stated:

“My top journalism experiences have to include meeting my wife, Lorre, while on the job. She was serving as municipal court clerk and I as the new editor of the Molalla Pioneer, just starting out there in 1985 – on April 1, naturally – and making the rounds at city hall.”

Kirby and Lorre have been married thirty-eight years and have two wonderful sons – Connal and Delaney Rea. (#8)

Neumann Rea (the retirement moniker he’s adopted) may no longer have a “Scrapbook” column any longer, but you can now catch his wonderings on his blog – “Burn the Ax Handle” where he covers a wide range of topics.

In fact, I have to compliment him for his use of alliteration in the most recent one – “Cacophony of Curiosities.”

And he will not be bored whatsoever in retirement – whether it’s playing pick-up basketball, where some people (including Neumann-Rea) think he has a decent elbow jumper, to continuation of the hobby he inherited from his dad, Donald, who died in 2020 at 94. (#9 -#11)

Neumann-Rea still sends about fifteen postcards every month and writes letters – not really expecting a response.  His dad’s conglomeration of cards and letters started when he was 12. 

“It was his collection that inspired my lifelong fascination with postcards, including the sending of them. One of the last interactive acts of his life was my reading the messages to him, many from his sister or mother or aunts in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s.

He collected them extensively during his Navy days in WWII, which has provided an excellent chronicle of his time in uniform.”

I assume that Lorre is going to be all over him, with a more challenging full-court press than he sees at the gym, to get rid of most of the newspapers I’m confident he has stashed in their garage. (#12)

External Photo Attribution

#1.  Oregon Alpha News 

#2.  Courtesy Craig Hanneman

#3.Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dean_Martin_-_publicity.JPG)  This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in the United States between 1930 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice. Source: Original studio publicity photo of Dean Martin for the film Bells Are Ringing (1960).

#4 – #5.  McMinnville News Register (https://newsregister.com/article?articleTitle=kirby-neumann-rea-starting-over-on-a-new-fork-in-the-road-of-life–1747409748–51914–commentary.

#6.  Linked-in (20) Kirby Neumann-Rea | LinkedIn).

#7. Dallas Oregon Chamber of Commerce (https://dallasoregon.org/).

#8 – #11. Courtesy of Kirby Neumann-Rea.

#12. Microsoft Edge AI image generator