about the Crow's Nest

My grandfather Bob McCracken began writing the Crow's Nest in 1935. He was 25 years old.

He had joined the staff of the Corpus Christi Caller only two years before after studying at the University of Missouri's School of Journalism. He was named Publisher in 1939, then Managing Editor in 1941.

Bob McCracken's Crow's Nest columns appeared several times a week on the paper's front page. My grandfather wrote the Crow's Nest in a third-person voice under the name, 'The Lookout' It wasn't his writing style so much as his ability to mix humor with a willingness to take on the status quo that made my grandfather's columns notable.

In 1945, a judge threw my grandfather in jail for writing a Crow's Nest column criticizing the judge's conduct in a trial. My grandfather and the paper appealed all the way to the Supreme Court - and won.

In that decision, titled Craig v. Harney (Craig was the paper's publisher and Harney was the sheriff), the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protects a journalist's right to criticize a judge.

Later, during the 1950's, my grandfather editorialized in favor of civil rights. He developed emphysema in the late 1950's, but he kept writing even as the illness wasted his body and made breathing painful.

Bob McCracken died in 1958 at the age of 48. My dad was 19 at the time. My dad attended community college in Corpus Christi that year so he could be with his dying father.

Dad never talks about that period - he is very private about his feelings. But my brother Kevin and I could tell from an early age that my grandfather had made a big impact on my dad. For example, he fell in love with my mom, a young New York City journalist from Oklahoma who in the early 1960's was an outspoken believer in civil rights, gay rights and equality for women.

And like his own father, my dad to this day (in fact, more all the time) never hesitates to speak his mind. He also follows his father's example of never personalizing disagreements and always adding humor.

I never met my grandfather, but I, too, was strongly influenced by his example. I was the editor of my high school newspaper, served as the editorial chairman of my college newspaper, and I wrote a novel. On a deeper level, I see the example Bob McCracken set... of following your conscience, of speaking out for what you believe is right, no matter the consequences it has on you personally... and I strive to live up to that standard in my own life.