{"id":4912,"date":"2021-03-31T07:50:17","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T14:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danthewineguy.com\/?p=4912"},"modified":"2021-05-02T07:36:28","modified_gmt":"2021-05-02T14:36:28","slug":"in-memoriam-gregg-mcconnell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/?p=4912","title":{"rendered":"In Memoriam: Gregg McConnell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It is with great sadness that I write about the recent passing of Gregg McConnell: work colleague, friend, and mentor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gregg had a long and illustrious career in journalism, most recently as President and Publisher of the Tri-City Herald and Editor of Wine Press Northwest Magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I met Gregg in Hood River, Oregon in 2014, where we both served as judges for the Northwest Wine Summit. We immediately hit it off, and Gregg offered me a position on the spot as a Contributor to Wine Press Northwest. For me, it was a life-changing and door-opening event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gregg was a giant in the Pacific Northwest wine industry. He was a tireless promoter, proponent, and, just as important, consumer of wines, especially those from Washington State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gregg was also instrumental in assisting my spouse, Alex, and me in establishing the Bellingham Northwest Wine Festival six years ago. He served as a judge in the initial years of the Festival’s competition and attended the Festival with insights and feedback that were invaluable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the standout suggestions he made came when we were struggling with the possibility of holding the Festival at a different venue. We were considering a newer, but smaller facility and were uncertain how it would be received by consumers. Gregg’s advice was simple: “if you’re going to grow an event you have to add to it; never subtract. If people come away feeling they received less of an experience, they won’t return.” We’ve never forgotten those words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After his retirement, Gregg took a run at public office. By his own admission, he knew his chances of winning were slim. His political ideologies were more centrist in nature, and that made him a tough-sell in an area that was decidedly right-leaning. But along with his centrism, he was also fair, unbiased, and willing to listen to both sides. In short, he carried all the qualities of a lousy candidate in today’s political climate, but perfect for flourishing as a newspaperman, reporter, and editor in the field of journalism, which he did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rest in peace and cheers to you, Gregg. You will long be remembered when we read about, write about, or pop the cork on a bottle of Pacific Northwest wine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is with great sadness that I write about the recent passing of Gregg McConnell: work colleague, friend, and mentor. Gregg had a long and illustrious career in journalism, most recently as President and Publisher of the Tri-City Herald and Editor of Wine Press Northwest Magazine. I met Gregg in Hood River, Oregon in 2014, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stickyposts","category-heard-through-the-grapevine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4912"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4921,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4912\/revisions\/4921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}