HOLYOKE – In 1972, I served an internship my final month at Granby Jr. Sr. High School as part of the graduation requirement. I was able to land such a position at the Holyoke Transcript-Telegram, the venerable daily newspaper from the Paper City, a publication my family read daily.

Leading that newsroom was City Editor Mike Burke, who treated me with great consideration. He saw a completely green – and slightly scared – kid and made the experience truly positive and educational. I still have some of my clippings from that internship.

Mike passed at age 78 on Dec. 24.

That Transcript newsroom was a blast from the past. It was a newsroom straight from the 1930s and ‘40s. There were several rows of desks with manual typewriters on them. The paper for the typewriters was in a big roll, like paper towels, behind the machines. You would type up the story, rip the paper and bring it over to Mike.

He would go over it, edit it, and then roll it up, put it a plastic tube and place it in the pneumatic system, which would carry it to composing on the second floor. There was a group of linotype operators who would transform words on the page into metal type to make up the pages for the printing press.

It was exactly what I thought a newspaper should be like.

By the time I worked at the Transcript, the company had moved from its High Street building to a new one on Whiting Farms Road. Mike was no longer with the newspaper, having taking a public relations job at Providence Hospital.

I can say the newsroom and the atmosphere had changed greatly and not for the better.

Years later I took the job editing and reporting for the Chicopee Herald and became re-acquainted with Mike after he left a public relations job. He had returned to newspapers, heading up the Holyoke bureau for The Republican. Despite the fact our companies were competitors, Mike was always a colleague. He was – despite not being Holyoke born and bred – truly Mr. Holyoke. He knew the city inside and out. He was celebrated with awards for his work including the Holyoke St Patrick’s Day Parade Citizenship Award.

He leaves not only a loving large family, but also a huge legacy in local journalism.