I'm really sorry, Glen, but this one's for you

Glen Snarr is going to hate me for writing this. Although hate may not be the right word. Glen Snarr has never hated anything, as far as I could tell, except for maybe a three-putt.

It's been a couple of months now since Glen retired as chairman of the board of Deseret Morning News Publishing Co., stepping down as quietly as nightfall. That was his way. He stayed out of the limelight. He drew attention to himself like the Secret Service. He could have cured cancer and not bragged about it.

He's still a member of the board, just not chairman, meaning he's cutting back just a bit. No one's begrudging him that small luxury. The newspaper he helped guide has sailed into its 155th year in better shape than it's been for decades. Circulation is up, readership is up and, most amazing of all, morale among us surly, cynical, perennially malcontented journalists on the staff is on the climb.

All because you're most likely reading this in the morning and not at night.

More than anyone else, Glen Snarr is the man who gave the Deseret Morning News its middle name.

It was Glen who led the crusade to dawn delivery in late 2002 after more than a century of being a "p.m." paper. There was a time when the majority of Americans preferred getting their newspaper at night, but that time expired about the same time as family farms and tail fins on cars. Despite that, for years the News was thwarted from going morning by its business partner, the Salt Lake Tribune.

Glen fought against the status quo. He had to spend a lot of time with lawyers and in courtrooms in the process, and he had to absorb some nasty personal attacks on his character and integrity from the old Tribune regime. But he finally and ultimately prevailed, and along the way he never responded with personal attacks of his own. "He always took the high road," says Deseret Morning News editor John Hughes. "And he always encouraged the rest of us to take the high road, too. He's a nice man, he's very sharp, and he wrote a great chapter in the history of the Deseret News."

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I officed next door to Mr. Snarr during the height of the morning war. To say the mean-spiritedness and personal sniping didn't affect him would not be correct, nor would it be accurate to say that the constant parade of 12-hour days and long sessions with attorneys did not take their toll.