Kemp, Klein Reunite In San Diego p.11

By: M.L. Stein THE GOP CONVENTION was a reunion of sorts for Herb Klein, editor and chief of Copley Newspapers, and Jack Kemp, the Republican vice presidential nominee. From 1961 to 1964, Kemp was an editorial writer and columnist for the San Diego Union during the off season while he was quarterbacking the Chargers. In one instance, he even wrote hard news on an assignment to cover a Young Republican convention.
Klein, who was the Union editor at the time, recollected that then-Union general manager Al DeBakcsy originally hired Kemp to be a community relations representative.
"I thought he could be more useful than that, so
I put him on editorials and writing a youth column," Klein said. As a journalist, Kemp was "awkward
at first, but I assigned someone to help him," Klein said. "He eventually became an above average writer, and he had a lot of good ideas." Klein, White House communications director during the Nixon administration, and his wife became good friends of the Kemps.
"To this day, Jack calls me either his father confessor or his godfather," Klein said with a chuckle.