By: E&P Staff Wayne Bean announced his retirement after 52 years, 38 of them spent working in the newspaper industry and associated with the Metro Users Group, where he plans to continue serving as a director.
Bean began his newspaper career in 1969 at Copley Newspaper's South Bay Breeze, Torrance, Calif. (the same day, he notes, that Richard Nixon began work in the White House), where he helped install and maintain a Goss Metro press.
During that time he developed the "Flugie" punch-coater, which Western Lithotech later acquired and sold to newspapers, and the "bomb" bulk color ink tote tank, which earned him a"Ring of Truth" award from Copley.
In 1973, Bean moved to the jointly operated Pulitzer (now Lee) and Gannett papers in Tucson, Ariz., to assist with the installation and maintenance of a Goss Metro press. In his 28 years in Tucson, Bean rose through the ranks from maintenance foreman to press and maintenance manger to production director and, for his last 15 years there, served as operations vice president before taking early retirement.
While in Tucson, Bean won five Gannett President's Rings for outstanding performance, and the papers won two Newspaper Association of America Best Practices awards. Also during that period, the first stacker "light curtain" was developed, an invention later sold to and marketed by Quipp Systems.
After spending a year consulting for newspapers, Bean in 2002 took on the job of operations director at the Los Angeles Times San Fernando plant, where one of several initiatives he introduced won the Times an NAA Best Practices award.
After the plant was closed last year, Bean moved downtown, to the Times' Olympic plant as operations director/projects.
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