Editorial Writer

This year's H. L. Mencken Writing Award for opinion writing goes to Charles Levendosky of Casper, Wyo.The judges were Fred Hobson of the University of North Carolina, Mencken's most recent biographer; Anne Hull of the St. Petersburg Times of Florida and a current Nieman Fellow at Harvard; and Barry Saunders, columnist and editorial writer at the News and Observer in Raleigh, N.C.The winner, 58, has been editorial page editor of Wyoming's leading daily paper,...

Paul W. Wirtz, former deputy director of facilities engineering at Aberdeen Proving Ground and longtime comptroller and trustee of the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, died Nov. 4 from multiple organ failure at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The former Roland Park resident was 91. "Paul was a very erudite guy and very learned. He was a world traveler until he became ill," said Andrew S. Blumberg, a member for many years of the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, where he is director of public relations.

Peter Lisagor, the late respected newspaper reporter, sai once that "An old editor told me to walk down the middle of the street and shoot windows out on both sides."Editorial writers on the other hand are supposed to shoot at only one side. The trick is to guess which side needs shooting more. Choices are often less clearly right or wrong than the dummy saints and rogues who pop up in police shooting galleries.In a follow-up to earlier columns on Baltimore Sun editorial writing, let me introduce the writers choosing targets here.

The tragic slaying of Trayvon Martin in Florida has shown the folly of that state's "stand your ground" self defense law - and similar laws enacted or proposed in a number of other states - which your editorial writer correctly characterizes as providing a "license to kill. " However, The Sun neglects to point out that Maryland will move inevitably in the same direction if the recent federal court ruling voiding our sensible handgun permit law is upheld on appeal. Unquestionably, George Zimmerman could not have been granted a permit by the Maryland State Police and would not be permitted legally to carry a weapon on our streets.

Edgar L. Jones, who wrote thousands of editorials for The Sun and hundreds of Friday columns for The Evening Sun in a 33-year career, died of pneumonia Friday at Frederick Villa Nursing Center in Catonsville. Mr. Jones, who had dementia, was 86 and lived in Windsor Hills. In his last Evening Sun column in 1980, Mr. Jones suggested the wording of his own obituary: "In keeping the same position for more than 33 years without promotion -- or, for that matter, without demotion -- Mr. Jones lived up to an assessment made by his first editor in New York, James P. Grady, who said of him in 1940, `Jones may not be brilliant, but he's steady.

Jerome G. Kelly, whose career as a reporter for The Evening Sun and editorial writer for The Sun spanned three decades, died of Alzheimer's disease yesterday at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 74. A Baltimore native raised on Lafayette and Cliftmont avenues, he was a 1950 graduate of City College. He served in the Air Force as a radio traffic analyst from 1951 to 1955 in Texas and Germany. After attending what was then Baltimore Junior College, Mr. Kelly began his newspaper career as a reporter on the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette in Indiana where one of his celebrity profiles included Elvis Presley.

In Baltimore CountyFire in Towson causes roof to cave in at dry cleaning shopTOWSON -- An early-morning fire swept through a dry cleaners yesterday, causing $100,000 in damage, fire officials said.No one was injured in the blaze at Cleaner Cleaners in the 7200 block of York Road, said Baltimore County Fire Department Battalion Chief Mark Hubbard. The intense fire, which took 30 minutes to bring under control, caused the roof to cave in, he said.Yesterday's blaze was the second fire in six days at the cluster of shops that housed the cleaners and a former Baskin-Robbins shop, Hubbard said.

I WROTE THAT the editorial writer who composed the "Yes, Virginia" editorial probably resented being given that chore.Lucille Ferrari of E. Rochester, N.Y., complained that I took an editorial "conveying love and joy" and "destroyed it and turned it into something sour and ugly." She has a point. At the very least my timing was bad. The column appeared in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle on Christmas day.Wells Mears of Baltimore noted that I called that editorial "the most famous and enduring ever," and asked if I knew anything about the most enduring letter to the editor ever.

FROM A question-and-answer session with Speaker Newt Gingrich at a National Newspaper Association meeting:Moderator: Did you tell a business group that if one disagrees with editorial policy, curtailing advertising could be an effective approach for change?Speaker Gingrich: Absolutely. Absolutely. What I said -- and I'll say it anywhere -- the news media is the fourth estate. It deserves to be just as carefully scrutinized, just as critically looked at. It should be held up to the same standard as politicians or judges or anybody else.

J. Pierce Fenhagen, a retired newspaper copy editor and editorial writer, died of heart failure Monday at his Wakefield, R.I., home. He was 84. Born and raised in Baltimore, Mr. Fenhagen was the son of George Corner Fenhagen, a partner in the architectural firm of Buckler & Fenhagen, which designed the library at the Johns Hopkins University and the present City College. Mr. Fenhagen was raised in the 900 block of St. Paul St. and graduated from St. Andrew's School in Middletown, Del. He earned his bachelor's degree from Haverford College in 1939.

Editor: In your editorial "Let Them Eat Cake", you, Mr. Kennedy, display for the public at large your curmudgeonly nature, your abject ignorance and your vitriolic bitterness. To compare teachers who have not receive their negotiated salaries for three years to Marie Antoinette is patently offensive and repugnant. You should be ashamed of yourself. Your proclivity to use your position as editor of the only local paper in Harford County to lambast the county workers and teachers is shameful.  Have you no ethics?

James Hall Bready, an Evening Sun editorial writer for more than three decades and originator of the "Books and Authors" column that was published in The Baltimore Sun for nearly 50 years, died Saturday of renal failure at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. The Homeland resident was 92. Mr. Bready, whose parents were staff members of the old Philadelphia Ledger, was born in Philadelphia and raised in South Jersey. He was a graduate of Woodbury High School and Moorestown Friends School, both in New Jersey.

Gwinn F. Owens, a retired editor and editorial writer who made The Evening Sun's op-ed page a popular feature with readers and contributors, died of complications from dementia Sunday at College Manor nursing home in Lutherville. The longtime Ruxton resident was 87. Mr. Owens was born in Seven Oaks, England, the son of James Hamilton Owens, a veteran newspaperman, and Olga Owens, a homemaker and musician. They moved to Lutherville and later Riderwood, where he grew up, when his father was named editor of The Evening Sun in 1922.

Odell M. Smith, a former reporter for The Evening Sun and The Sun who later became an assistant to Maryland Gov. J. Millard Tawes, died of complications from a broken hip Monday at Genesis ElderCare's Spa Creek Center in Annapolis. He was 98. Born in Kernersville, N.C., just east of Winston-Salem, Mr. Smith was raised in Guthrie, N.C., a Southern Railway whistle-stop. After graduating from high school, he studied journalism for three years at the University of North Carolina before dropping out during the Depression to take a job as surveyor on the Blue Ridge Parkway highway project.

Jerome G. Kelly, whose career as a reporter for The Evening Sun and editorial writer for The Sun spanned three decades, died of Alzheimer's disease yesterday at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 74. A Baltimore native raised on Lafayette and Cliftmont avenues, he was a 1950 graduate of City College. He served in the Air Force as a radio traffic analyst from 1951 to 1955 in Texas and Germany. After attending what was then Baltimore Junior College, Mr. Kelly began his newspaper career as a reporter on the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette in Indiana where one of his celebrity profiles included Elvis Presley.

The Pages: Finding your way around WE IN THE EDITORIAL department of The Sun always look forward to this annual opportunity to tell our readers about ourselves, our pages and - most important - the role of the editorial page as the institutional voice of this newspaper. The editorial and Opinion Commentary pages are distinctly separate from the pages overseen by the editor of the news, sports and features pages. That division ensures the independence of the editorial - or opinion - department, the objectivity of the news department, and the integrity of both.

James Hall Bready, an Evening Sun editorial writer for more than three decades and originator of the "Books and Authors" column that was published in The Baltimore Sun for nearly 50 years, died Saturday of renal failure at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. The Homeland resident was 92. Mr. Bready, whose parents were staff members of the old Philadelphia Ledger, was born in Philadelphia and raised in southern New Jersey. He was a graduate of Woodbury High School and Moorestown Friends School, both in New Jersey.

IT'S HARD NOT to wonder if The Sun's editorial writer who attacked the collective bargaining bill now before the General Assembly had been reading his or her own paper, let alone the bill itself.The lead editorial March 12 opposing the collective bargaining bill claims it would allow state employees ''more frequent and bigger pay increases . . . without them having to worry about such things as legislative approval.''That's not what The Sun wrote in its Jan. 26 article on the collective bargaining bill.

J. Pierce Fenhagen, a retired newspaper copy editor and editorial writer, died of heart failure Monday at his Wakefield, R.I., home. He was 84. Born and raised in Baltimore, Mr. Fenhagen was the son of George Corner Fenhagen, a partner in the architectural firm of Buckler & Fenhagen, which designed the library at the Johns Hopkins University and the present City College. Mr. Fenhagen was raised in the 900 block of St. Paul St. and graduated from St. Andrew's School in Middletown, Del. He earned his bachelor's degree from Haverford College in 1939.