by
Don Pilette
Twenty-three years later, I still recall Don Pillette's kindness.
I was a reporter at the Detroit News and I was on strike. It was 1995. He had already retired as the paper's computer systems editor, helping run our Coyote and Hendrix writing and editing desktop terminals and train people to use them back in the pre-Internet era.
As we picketed on Third Street and Lafayette outside The News, Pilette pulled up in his Buick, popped the trunk and produced hot dogs and sandwiches wrapped in foil. He offered me one and I passed. He asked what he could bring that I would eat, and I said low-fat hot dogs.
He obliged. After that, he came almost daily with low-fat dogs and sandwiches.
Because he was an editor, he had not been in the Newspaper Guild. But his heart was with the union.
He was a kind guy with a good sense of humor. And in a business that is not always kind, his kindness was never forgotten.
Pilette of St. Clair Shores died Tuesday at age 91.
His obit in the A.H. Peters Funeral Home reads:
A native Detroiter, served in the Navy in WWII. He graduated from Cass Technical High School and Wayne State University. He was a reporter at the Durand Express, Marquette Mining Journal and Gary (Ind.) Post Tribune. As an editor at the Detroit Times, Don was only one of six staffers brought to The Detroit News when the newspaper bought it in 1960.
He served in several capacities at The News, including national and systems editor, until he retired in 1992. Don also was an adjunct instructor at Wayne State for 37 years, teaching news editing and reporting. The college honored him in 2011 by naming the journalism lab in his name.
He also taught at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Don was a licensed pilot who enjoyed flying to airports across the state.
Lou Mleczko, the former head of the Detroit Newspaper Guild, posts on Facebook:
I am saddened to learn of the death of longtime Detroit News colleague Don Pilette.
Although he was exempt from the Guild contract for a period of time, Don supported the union and made a point of urging new hires to join the union. As a systems editor, he would give occasional tours to college students of the newsroom and would also make a point of stopping by my desk to introduce the students to me since I was president of Local 22. He would lecture the students on the importance of a union contract in providing better pay and working conditions for journalists. During the newspaper strike that started in 1995, Don would regularly stop by to offer food to Guild members manning the picket lines downtown.
Visitation is from noon until 7 p.m. Saturday at the A.H. Peters Funeral Home, 20705 Mack Ave. in Grosse Pointe Woods. Memorial tributes can be sent to Wayne State's Department of Communications, 585 Manoogian Hall, 906 W. Warren Ave. Detroit, MI 48201, or to the United Community Housing Coalition, 2727 Second Ave., Detroit, MI 48201.
