'Journalism Is A Great Field'
By Suzanna Adam
At 84, after dozens of trips overseas, Louis Gerdes has turned in his traveling shoes.
"I'm tired of the umpteen-thousand-mile trips to the end of the world," Gerdes said. "It's somebody else's turn now."
That doesn't mean he's stopped playing tennis every day, given up his winter migration to Scottsdale, Ariz., or put down his reporter's pencil, but his passport needed the break.
Gerdes, who retired nearly two decades ago after 43 years at The Omaha World-Herald, has traveled to India, Africa, Japan and Europe, to name just a few places. He has written articles for the Japanese government and Phoenix newspapers.
"The world is us now," Gerdes said. "There is so much to understand in the various countries."
Perhaps one of his favorite overseas adventures was his three-month stint at the Egyptian Gazette in Cairo, Egypt, during the 1990 Gulf War.
Gerdes was sent to Cairo by the International Executive Service Corps with the goal of revamping the once-renowned English-language newspaper, which he said had become "less than famous" due to political turmoil.
"My effort was to get it back," Gerdes said.
Despite his comment that he did "maybe nothing real important," Gerdes said he had a hand in every part of the Gazette's operation. After Gerdes' time at the newspaper, the editor of the Gazette won an award as journalist of the year in Egypt.
But Egypt wasn't all work and no play. Gerdes' wife, Helen, who died two years ago, also loved to travel and lived with him in a Cairo hotel that looked down on one of the densest populations in the world.
"It was an amazing thing that there were so many people," Gerdes said. "But what I remember was the cleanliness of the people. They all looked like they came out of the laundry."
At night, the pair would cross the eight-lane highway in front of their hotel and walk along the beach.
"We didn't worry a bit about things when we were there," Gerdes said, though the Gulf War brought many Kuwaiti refugees to Cairo. After he and his wife left, there was a bombing outside their hotel.
Now, Gerdes' biggest challenge is keeping track of his son and grandchildren, who, as he does, love tennis and love to travel the world.
Though he graduated from the University of Missouri, Gerdes has always had friends in the University of Nebraska system, such as Ron Roskens, former NU president.
"(Gerdes) is certainly a cerebral and energetic person," Roskens said. "He is keenly interested in his profession and the newspaper world."
Gerdes was executive editor at The Omaha World-Herald when Roskens was NU president. Through his insistence on fair representation of NU news, Gerdes earned a reputation for integrity.
"He inspired many others around him to execute at the best level, in large part by example," Roskens said. "He has many characteristics of the best teachers; consequently he taught many by example."
From his years of experience, Gerdes offered a bit of advice for journalists-in-the-making.
"Journalism is a great field as long as you love it and love to do it more than anything else," Gerdes said.
"You must be curious and want to do something about it - it's no good if you don't. There are lots of frustrations but never a boring day."
