‘Conscience of the Community’ looks back on David Klement’s three decades at the Herald
David Klement has not been idle since retiring in 2007 at age 67 after 30 years as editorial page editor for the Bradenton Herald.
There have been stints at a University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee think tank, and at the Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions at St. Petersburg College. He even served about seven months on the Florida Public Service Commission.
After “retiring” from all that in June of 2019, he founded the Klement Group to handle writing assignments and do consulting work.
More significantly, two weeks ago, at age 80, he published his first book, “Conscience of the Community: Memoir of a Small Town Editor.”
You could call it the personal side of Dave Klement, with chapters organized by topics, largely drawn from the Sunday columns that he wrote over three decades.
Those chapters include “Family,” “Matters of Faith,” “On Deadline,” “My Bleeding Heart,” “On the Road,”and “Trivia of Life.”
Each of the chapters in the 375-page book has a generous number of columns, each of which is tagged with a personal reflection, sort of a look back with additional insight.
For Klement fans, the book is a rich trove of memories, Bradenton area stories, events, and insights. It is written in Klement’s fluid, engaging, highly readable style.
Klement grew up on his family’s dairy farm in Muenster, Texas, north of Dallas. When he enrolled in college, he only knew that he wanted something else for his life’s work than the dairy business. In his freshman year, he settled on journalism.
After graduation, he worked for newspapers in Oklahoma City and Detroit before interviewing with Wayne Poston, at that time the Bradenton Herald’s executive editor, who later became the current mayor of Bradenton.
Klement met Poston for his job interview in the hospital, where the editor was being treated for a bleeding ulcer. Klement went to work as business editor for the Herald, and later worked on the city desk, before getting the editorial page editor job two years after arriving in Bradenton.
“David had a great conscience. He worked very hard to treat everyone fairly, even though he might take the other side. He was a worker bee,” Poston said.
Klement’s work ethic and deep dive into issues that he was writing about became legendary.
“David has always been known for his tenacity. He just turned 80 and he is still at full throttle,” said Joan Krauter, former executive editor of the Herald. “You could never get away from David without thinking deeply about issues. David never took the easier path.”
So, it may come of something of a surprise that Klement’s first chapter, “Family,” opens with Christmases that he has known, and how a child’s view helped restore the meaning of Christmas.
Readers will also learn about Klement’s favorite Christmas. Not to be a spoiler, but it has a lot to do with his growing love affair with the woman who would soon become his wife. He and Jo Anne have now been married more than 40 years.
Yes, Klement has a soft side, and a deep feeling for the underdog. But he has also waded into many tough fights, unafraid to take on powerful special interests.
There are several references in the book to Don Quixote, and his penchant for tilting at windmills. Klement identifies with Miguel de Cervantes’ hero who dared to dream impossible dreams.
One of his first columns after taking the reins of the editorial page was critical of Anita Bryant, a former Miss America contestant and orange juice spokeswoman, who helped lead a fight against a local law in Miami-Dade that protected gay rights. In a referendum, Dade residents voted to repeal the protections.
“That column caused such an uproar in Bradenton,” Klement said.
In another column, Klement rallied Bradenton support for migrant workers in Wimauma, who were cold and starving after a freeze hit the area. The community organized a relief caravan to bring food and supplies to the workers.
Klement’s church also organized its own caravan. The youth pastor and his wife met an unmarried 15-year-old pregnant teen at the labor camp and ended up adopting her baby, Klement said.
Another of Klement’s battles involved Sarasota Bradenton International Airport. The Bradenton Herald advocated keeping the airport at its current location, while the Sarasota Herald-Tribune favored moving it east to the vicinity of what is now Lakewood Ranch.
“When the airport finally got a new terminal, a lot of that was because of the Bradenton Herald,” Klement said.
Klement’s most memorable day at the Bradenton Herald was Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked the United States.
Even though the Herald staff was in shock, like the rest of the country, it was able to pull itself together and publish a special edition at noon. The last line in Klement’s column: “This is war.”
The decision to write a book was no spur-of-the-moment decision. Klement planned to write two books and a screen play as far back as at least 2007.
“I wrote it for Bradenton, for Manatee County, and the people who read me all those years. Another reason is to leave a lasting legacy for my family. It’s a commentary about the past and its relationship to the present,” Klement said.
It’s a legacy that Marc R. Masferrer, president and editor of the Bradenton Herald, heard about soon after arriving in Bradenton 15 years ago.
“I realized how much of the Herald’s stature in the community was a product of David’s forceful editorials and columns,” Masferrer said. “A good opinion writer at a paper like the Herald stands on principle, whether it’s demanding accountability from public officials or decrying an injustice, and challenges the community to rise and to be better. David’s work always did that.”
“Conscience of the Community: Memoir of a Small Town Editor” is available for $13.95 plus tax and shipping from klementgroup.com or at amazon.com.
This story was originally published August 29, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
