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Bernsee honored with DAR Historic Preservation Award
What Eric Bernsee does on a daily basis for the Banner Graphic can most accurately be described as reporting.
The City Council passed a new tax abatement. The Board of Zoning Appeals denied a use variance. A local man is facing charges following a violent incident.
However, at some point, after more than 40 years of telling — and often retelling — stories about subjects as varied as the IBM departure, the Hollandsburg murders, Average House Band and Greencastle’s All-American City award, the reporting becomes something more.
It’s historic preservation.
This distinction was noted by Washburn Chapter NSDAR member Jinsie Bingham last week as she presented Bernsee with the chapter’s Historic Preservation Award.
One need look no further than the front page of the Friday, Nov. 12 edition of the Banner Graphic, which Bingham held up as a visual aid. On that day, the front page featured three current news stories alongside the longtime editor’s long-running “Daze Work” column, this particular vintage discussing the IBM departure, which had been announced 35 years and one day earlier.
“Where were you when we got the word that our community was changing forever?” Bingham summarized Bernsee’s column.
“This stuff is reporting,” Bingham continued, indicating everything else on the page, before pointing to Bernsee’s column. “This stuff is preserving, and he has done a wonderful job of preserving.”
A native of Chicago’s western suburbs, Bernsee arrived in Greencastle in 1975 following his education at the University of Missouri and stints as sports editor in both Bloomington and Richmond, Va.
“Eric quickly became ‘one of us,’” Bingham said. “He’s taken us through ups and downs, blizzards and floods. He did that as a reporter and editor of the Greencastle Banner Graphic. Eric was in the Rose Garden at the White House when we got our All-American City Award. He was in an airplane with a weather emergency in China — or was it Japan?”
“Japan,” Bernsee confirmed.
“Well, he came home,” Bingham said with a laugh. “We’re glad to see you.”
In more than 40 years as editor — now editor emeritus — he has maintained his regular city beat, his column and the jack-of-all-trades approach that defines a small-town journalist.
On this particular day, the job called him to the DAR meeting, where he was about to report on the annual Good Citizen award, before he unexpectedly found himself part of the proceedings.
“This is a big surprise,” Bernsee said. “It makes me officially old now to be a preservationist.”
Bernsee is the 13th person to win the DAR Historic Preservation Award, joining:
2009: John Baughman
2010: Malcolm Romine
2011: Dr. James Cooper
2012: Larry Tippin
2013: John and Carolyn Carson
2014: Kim and Tim Shinn
2015: City of Greencastle and DePauw University
2016: Lee and Susan Stewart
2017: Phil Gick
2018: Jon Rice
2019: Mary Ruth Jones and Anita McEnulty
2020: Darrell Wiatt