Hi.
   My name is Tim Yagle and I'm a copy editor and page designer for the Marin Independent
Journal in the Bay Area in California. I have been there for a little over three years and I love
living in the Bay Area. I have been here for almost nine years after having moved here from
New England, where I was a sportswriter/copy editor for a daily paper in Western Connecticut
for seven years.

I am a charter of member of ACES, having been at each conference since Chapel Hill. The
initial energy has carried us to this point, and I hope it continues for a long time. I plan to run
for executive committee next year to give smaller papers (Marin has a circulation of about
40,000) a bigger voice in the organization. I also have contributed to the newsletter and been
on the academic committee and done a few surveys for the organization.

I have enjoyed working for daily newspapers for 22 years after having graduated with a BA in
political science and a minor in journalism from the University of Michigan in my hometown of
Ann Arbor, Mich. I have worked for seven papers since then as a reporter (features, news,
arts, sports), then as a copy editor. I enhoy being a copy editor more, I think, because it
gives me a different perspective on newspaper publishing. I also like being part of the last line
of defense in the newsroom. Our editors also want us to set the standard for excellence in
the newsroom, and we like that responsibility, as I'm sure all of you do. We are accountable
to them, as well as a demanding readership in Marin; many of them have the New York Times and Wall Street Journal home delivered.

Most of my family still lives in Ann Arbor. My dad and mom and older brother (46) still are
there, where my older brother is a distinguished and decorated professor of electrical
engineering at the university and my dad is a professor emeritus of marine engineering. Mom
was a registered nurse who worked for University Hospital before retiring several years ago.

We also had the most beautiful golden retriever you ever saw before cancer took her life 22
years ago. She was 15 at the time. But now my younger brother (by 5 years) and his wife in
Seattle have kept her legacy alive by adopting a big lug of a golden named Mason just before
they got married two years ago. My dog was named Meli, the Greek word for honey, because
our family is half Greek.

Thanks for your time and for reading this page.

Tim

Outside of newspapers, my life since moving here has been focused on participating in the
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training program and being a mentor for the
San Francisco State University journalism department for the past few years

With Team in Training, the biggest fund-raising arm of the society, ordinary people -- not
just accomplished athletes-- complete marathons (26.2 miles), centuries (100-mile bike rides)
and triathlons (swim,bike, run) in honor of patients who have leukemia, lymphoma and other blood-related cancers. It is the largest such team in the country.

Over the six years I have worked with the nationwide charity, I have run/walked 10 marathons (I do two per year for the society), two half-marathons and a host of 5-K (3.1 miles) road races. I have been a mentor and assistant coach on the walk/run team here in the East Bay
and in San Francisco. Outside of graduating from Michigan, it is the most rewarding thing I
have ever done because we complete these events for the benefit of other people who aren't
as fortunate physically as we are. Through this team, I  have discovered extended family members and friends who have one of the diseases we are fighting. It has been eye-opening, to say the least. These diseases are the kind of thing some people don't like to talk about.
But knowing about this team has opened up some people to be more comfortable talking
about it.

Since its inception 10 years ago, the program has raised more than $350 million nationwide
for research, patient services and education. I say all this not as promotion for the team, but
simply for educational purposes. I give it this much space on my page because it occupies
almost all of my life when I am not at work. I also am on several committees within
the society, including marketing, PR and corporate recruiting. 

They have asked me to work for them a few times, but I wouldn't want to give up working in
newspapers because I love it too much.