Misteaks happen: 'Big Ed' forgave our faults

Edwin Farabaugh

Journalists are storytellers.

And when you write groundbreaking news stories and editorial for the largest independent news site on the Internet – with a worldwide audience of millions – it helps to have a better-than-average grasp of the fundamentals of spelling, grammar, punctuation and the like.

The news professionals at WND pride themselves on their ability to generate accurate and compelling stories you won't find anywhere else. But even the best in the news business make "misteaks." That's when it helps to have a skilled copy editor watching over you – to right your wrongs and scrub away your errors.

Ed Farabaugh was that person for WND.

WND is mourning the loss of our trusted colleague and copy editor. Ed left us last week at the age of 79 and his passing has left a void at WND.

"Ed Farabaugh played an important role at WND for many years," said Managing Editor David Kupelian. "When you have a small team of journalists working 100 mph to report breaking news around the clock, there will always be spelling errors, typos and a whole variety of other mistakes. Thank God Ed was there, watching our back all those years. He made WND better. We are all grateful for his dedication, and very saddened by his passing."

"BigEdWND"

Ed was a U.S. Army veteran who served in Germany during the Korean War and worked for General Motors Corporation as a manager for 35 years, before retiring in 1986. He was a volunteer firefighter and a professional musician. He played the accordion and also taught lessons.

His passion was technology, especially computers. That passion helped lead him to a second career with WND.

Ed teamed with WND when the news site was in its infancy. He was a "fan" who often emailed staffers when he saw something that needed correcting. Joseph Farah, WND's CEO, was so impressed by Ed's dedication, he hired him as a proofreader. Ed "telecommuted" from his home computer and "BigEdWND" was a constant on instant message. He would "ping" us all hours of the day and night after reading every single word of copy on WND – including news articles and editorials. He easily corrected thousands of typos during his tenure.

"One of the first things I looked for in my email inbox when starting my shift was any message from Ed. I knew it was one of the first things I needed to attend to if another editor hadn't done so already. He always had our back Going forward, it's going to be like working without a net," said News Editor Jay Baggett.

Ed's health forced him to retire from WND in 2003. Of course, Ed never really did "retire." He kept reading, watching and sending in corrections.

"That he stayed on as our proofreader while not an official 'employee' is a testament to him. Ed was one of the good guys," recalled News Editor Felicia Dionisio.

"Ed was a careful and gracious editorial backstop for WND. He will be sorely missed," said Commentary Editor Ron Strom.

Ed himself recently provided some insight into his life as WND's proofreader, saying:

Between breathing treatments, and bed rest, I try to read the top front page stuff soon after it goes to press. I have actually read 2,840 WND articles since June 2010, and have reported over 400 'misteaks.' Nearly all of my reports are acknowledged within 10-15 minutes. If not, I check to see if a correction was made. All but 15 were 'lost in the mail' so it was necessary to send second-request messages. Your accuracy record isn't all that bad when I consider how fast some of them are composed, and the difficulty it would be to run everything through a spell checker because of all those Arabic names. For what it's worth, I don't get too 'nit-picky,' when I encounter minor stuff such as an 'illegitimate' space before a comma. HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!

Executive News Editor Joe Kovacs worked closely with Ed over the years. He recalls:

"Ed was the friendliest correction-meister I've ever known, and was always a pleasure to work with, often ending his correspondence by typing out a very obvious <grin> in brackets just like that.

"After I accidentally left the letter L out of the word 'health' recently, Ed warned me: 'That's the second 'misteak' you've made since you've been on the job. One more, and I'll get The Donald to deal with you! <grin>'

"I still have plenty of messages from Ed in my email, so it's like 'BigEdWND' is still with us."

So long, Ed. Thanks for being there all these years. You were the greatest proofreader in the world. We'll miss you.

Ed Farabaugh is survived by his wife, Patricia; his son and daughter-in-law, Robert G. and Melissa Farabaugh; his daughter and son-in-law, Eric and Sandra George; and five grandchildren: James, Seth, Morgan, Madeline and Katie Marie.