04-05-2025
Tribune-Star Editorial: Jack Meany put vision into action, shaped Terre Haute
It never took long to realize Jack Meany had entered a room.
His booming baritone and hearty laugh enlivened the atmosphere. Meany achieved the same results in his adopted hometown of Terre Haute.
Meany's impact is worth remembering now. He died Sunday in Union Hospital at 85 years old.
As publisher of the Tribune-Star from 1990 until the turn of the 21st century, Meany led the newspaper's move from its original facility at 721 Wabash Ave. to a new $3-million structure — custom-built as a base of operations for print journalism — at 222 South Seventh St. Meany also presided over a substantial growth in the Tribune-Star's staff and coverage.
That facility debuted in 1997. It served its staff and the community through 2019, when newsroom and business operations moved to The Meadows, with the production plant remaining on East Margaret Avenue, where it has been since 2002.
The building Meany helped oversee into its fruition still serves the community as the renovated headquarters for the Terre Haute Police Department.
Likewise, Meany continued his involvement in the community after stepping down as publisher a quarter-century ago as a volunteer to fight hunger, a mentor and fundraiser at his church, and an active citizen, speaking at public meetings on voting access for college students, the size and scope of the new Vigo County jail, and the local food and beverage tax.
Meany, his wife Kathleen and their family of four kids first moved from Reno, Nevada to Terre Haute in 1982, when Jack became the Tribune-Star's circulation director. That job ended amid the change in ownership from the Hulman family to Ingersoll, and Meany then landed a job with Thomson Newspapers in Illinois and then Leavenworth, Kansas. His trademark wit showed in a comment he made when Thomson offered Meany the job in the Kansas town that is famously home to a maximum-security military prison.
'They said, 'Jack, what do you think about going to Leavenworth?'' he recalled in a 2018 Tribune-Star interview. 'I said, 'To the newspaper?'' He laughed loud at the memory.
That position led to the publisher's job in Terre Haute, the new building and a new hometown. In retrospective, Meany said the local role 'was fun, but it had its frustrations.'
It also differed from his earlier vocation — teaching.
Born in Port Jervis, New York, Meany later lived and graduated from high school in Pennsylvania and then earned a bachelor's degree from East Stroudsburg University and a master's degree from the State University of New York at New Paltz. Meany became a teacher in Port Jervis, teaching history, social studies and driver education to eighth-graders and juniors, while Kathleen taught English there. Jack organized a community fair in Port Jervis and led the local teachers union.
He also taught kids with special needs.
'He always had a heart for the student that wasn't tip-top,' Kathleen explained for that 2018 Tribune-Star story.
His soft heart also was evident in his Terre Haute years. After his publisher's role ended, he worked to help feed the hungry.
Meany scheduled food pantry distribution for the Salvation Army. He got churches, nonprofits and businesses to develop the 12 Points/Northside Brown Bag Project, a twice-a-week program to get food to residents of Garfield Towers and Warren Village in Terre Haute. Those two facilities serve aging, physically and mentally disabled and low-income people.
His motivation? 'I don't play golf. This is my game, and I enjoy doing it,' he told the newspaper he formerly led. He also emphasized that Kathleen 'does the heavy lifting. I just do the pointing.'
Meany explained the reason for the Brown Bag Project at a meeting of the local Bread for the World chapter.
'People should not be going to bed hungry,' he said.
Jack Meany brought a good heart and extra effort to any role he took on, and Terre Haute became better because of his work.
