Columnist back home again in Indiana
San Francisco writer returns to hometown to cover execution
By Jason Hathaway
Tribune-Star
In 1967, Purdue University freshman Stephanie Salter made a life-changing decision -- she switched her major from psychology to journalism.
"I was going to major in psychology, but I found out that I had to take chemistry and statistics [classes]," she said. "So, I switched to try something easier. I was hooked by the end of my freshman year."
By her senior year, Salter was editor of the Purdue Daily Exponent, where she learned as much as she did in the classroom.
Changes in majors are routine for college students, but this particular one pushed the Terre Haute native toward an exciting, intriguing career as a metropolitan journalist.
Salter is a syndicated columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, which puts her writing and views in front of hundreds of thousands of readers daily. That's just where she wants it.
"I belong in journalism," Salter said. "I really like it as a profession. At the age of 51, I still like people and I find that if you wait long enough, everybody's got a story to tell. It's very interesting."
Back in Terre Haute since May 3 writing columns about the upcoming Timothy McVeigh execution, Salter reflected on her Wabash Valley beginnings. She moved to Terre Haute from Vincennes in 1952 at 3 with parents Morris and Patty Salter and sister Deborah.
"She was a good kid," Patty Salter remembers. "She made it easy to be a parent. She was so inquisitive, asking questions about this, that and the other. She was, and is, very intelligent."
Stephanie Salter grew up in the public school system of Terre Haute and was a 1967 graduate of Garfield High School. There she wrote for the school newspaper, served on the yearbook staff and as a cheerleader. Salter still has many happy memories of cheering the Purple Eagles on to victories on the basketball court.
While at Garfield, Salter also began to build skills that would later prove useful in her profession from such teachers as psychology instructor Jim Eslinger, now a teacher at Terre Haute North Vigo High School.
Eslinger "was very influential in expanding my mind, sort of encouraging me toward critical thought and skepticism, which are useful skills for journalism," she said.
Salter went on to Purdue in the fall of 1967, graduating in 1971. She got her start in journalism by moving to New York to work as a researcher for Sports Illustrated, where she stayed for nearly five years. She moved to San Francisco in 1975 and began working for the San Francisco Examiner in June 1976. For the next 11 years, Salter worked a variety of news beats until becoming a columnist in 1987. She became a part of the San Francisco Chronicle team last year when the Chronicle merged with the smaller Examiner. The merger with the larger newspaper expanded Salter's readership.
"It's a lot bigger audience," she said. "I've got about a half million readers every day. It's a big difference. It's a lot of pressure, but it's also a bigger opportunity to do some good, rile some people."
Salter is well aware of the power of her pen through her syndicated column. With each column she feels a responsibility for doing as much good for her readers as possible.
"It's very humbling I don't take it lightly. I consider it a privilege. We [journalists] can do real good and do real damage in our business, so I really try to be careful and to take what we have seriously."
Salter visits family and friends in Terre Haute a minimum of three weeks out of the year. She volunteered for the McVeigh assignment to give the world's newspaper readers a more accurate picture of Terre Haute than it draws from most McVeigh news stories.
"I asked to do this," she said. "I knew that a media onslaught was coming, and I wanted to provide something that a lot of the outside media could not provide, which is a real knowledge of Terre Haute and its people. I mean, I feel kind of protective of Terre Haute. "
Salter's parents still live in Terre Haute and her sister, Deborah Fenoglio, now lives in Greencastle. Patty Salter is proud of her daughter and how far she's come in her field.
"Her daddy and I have always taught her that you can be anything you want to be if you try hard enough," Patty Salter said. "She's showed us that it can be. We're very proud of her."
At this point in her life, Salter says she's found happiness in her job and her life in San Francisco.
"I want to keep doing this until it's no fun any more," she said. "For me, I've got the greatest job in the world. I really do. I'm just into my 50s, and nobody told me that life is this good when you're this old, but it is.
"Life just keeps on getting better."
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