“All things must pass
None of life’s strings can last
So I must be on my way
And face another day” George Harrison
This morning, December 28, 2024, we saw our last Nature column in the Houston Chronicle.
The Nature column has been a major part of our lives for the past 25 years. Gary Clark wrote his lovely stories about backyard birds, rare birds, and birds in far away lands. He wrote about squirrels, rabbits, coyotes, alligators, frogs and so much more. Each column was a blend of art, literature, science, and history. Readers were often treated to a splash of the Bible and occasionally a bit of chess. Gary’s columns we not simply about nature. They were about life around us.
I tried to keep up by illustrating Gary’s column with my photos. The first column on April 1, 1999 was illustrated with scanned slides of John and Gloria Tveten, our predecessors. The photo editor at that time asked if I could not only scan the slides but could I upload them with a new software called FTP. The Chronicle was moving into the digital world and I learned everything I needed to keep up in a week.
We were still using film in 1999. If Gary wanted to write about a rare bird then I had to get a photo worthy of publication and hope/pray that the slide would be good. My local photo processor needed 48 hours to process slides back then so there was a lot of waiting and hoping.
When Gary interviewed someone famous like David Sibley, Sid Dunkle, or Chandler Robinson, I had to hope the photos came out. Same with a rare bird or unusual behavior.
I embraced digital cameras when the photos reached 8MB or publication quality. My first Nikon F100 and then Canon D10 were game changers for me and all those photographing for newspapers. If a photo did come out, it was my fault, and luckily I could reshoot the subject.
I’m proud to say that Gary never missed a weekly deadline. He always submitted a column despite surgeries, bike accidents, and weather delays. During Hurricane Ike, he wrote the column in a Starbucks that had an internet connection. He wrote from his hospital bed after a major bike accident. After hand surgery, he learned how to use voice activated typing. I remember one time when he dictated the column to someone at the Chronicle from a payphone in the desert. Yep, payphone, shorthand, and dictation skills came in handy to get the column in on time.
But writing a weekly column for a major big city newspaper has come to an end. Thanks to our editors Melissa Aguilar, Jody Schmal, and photo editor Jill Karnicki. Along the way, we’ve worked with Betty Luman, Molly Glentzer, Diane Cowen, Elizabeth Pudwill, and Catherine McIntosh plus others whose names escape me at the moment.
Thanks to all of you for being loyal readers. Gary and I will miss your comments and questions. Thanks, too, to everyone who gave us a quote, agreed to be interviewed, welcomed us to your yard for a rare bird, or shared your adventures with us.
Thanks, finally, to the editors at the Houston Chronicle. We wrote a nature column for 25 years. The Tvetens wrote their nature column for 24 years. That is nearly 50 years of bringing nature to readers. Way to go!
Left: Gary’s last column before upload. Right: My last photo preparing to go.
Kathy Adams Clark 