Books
No Walk in the Park
No Walk in the Park tells the story of a young writer stumbling up the ladder of newspapers as a functional alcoholic. Growing up in the 1960s and ’70s, there was no faith or religion in his life.
He starts work in journalism on a Colorado mountain town weekly and found professional success, including multiple awards. Personal life was another story as the first marriage collapsed. Drinking increased, up to and including a DUI, resulting in a short period of sobriety.
A second marriage and a move to daily newspapers followed the same pattern, ending with another divorce. A third wife and a move to California helped for a while, then didn’t. The fourth wife was there when 9/11 hit, with an aftermath of a party and another arrest. A jail miracle takes away the compulsion to drink and creates the basis for faith in Jesus Christ.
The rest of the story chronicles growing faith and recovery, the rise and fall of a community newspaper and a life of service to God and to the community.
Christian testimony, addiction recovery, 40 years of newspaper history – it’s all in No Walk in the Park: Newspapers, Booze, and God.
20 Years of Salt
The Best Of The Last 20 Years – In A Pinch…For more than 20 years, Harry Saltzgaver has chronicled the successes and failures, triumphs and tragedies, of Long Beach as the Executive Editor of Gazette Newspapers, the city’s favorite community newspapers. Throughout that time, he has provided a look at the human side of the paper through his column, “A Pinch of Salt.” Humor, pathos, insight and simple slices of life let readers see inside the paper, as well as Saltzgaver’s mind and heart.
In “20 Years Of Salt,” the best of those columns provide the reader with the same insight into the city, the paper and the writer. It offers a unique perspective to the last two decades in the life of the city, and the editor.
Passionately Positive
Beverly O’Neill was president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors when Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana and Mississippi, and led the recovery effort as the nation’s cities did what they could to help.
Beverly O’Neill was the child of an alcoholic.
Beverly O’Neill was the first – and so far the only – big city mayor to be reelected as a write-in candidate, winning a third term in Long Beach, California.
Beverly O’Neill couldn’t bring friends home from school because she never knew whether her father was going to be drinking or just gone.
Beverly O’Neill watched the Navy and the aerospace industry leave Long Beach, but managed to revitalize the city as an economically diverse waterfront urban center.
Beverly O’Neill started working at age 13, and hasn’t quit since.
Beverly O’Neill was the first female president of Long Beach City College – in a time when colleges weren’t supposed to have female presidents.
Beverly O’Neill was the child of the mother of Al-Anon, Flossie Lewis.
Beverly O’Neill was the first educator to focus on women attempting to return to college after being widowed, divorced or realizing that they had to make it on their own.
Beverly O’Neill was her parents’ right hand as they organized the first Alcoholics Anonymous central office in Southern California.
Beverly O’Neill was, and is, Passionately Positive.
