Robert Igoe

Robert Igoe was born May 29, 1968 in Monessen, PA, a small mill town in Pennsylvania's Mon Valley. After graduating from Belle Vernon Area High School in 1986, Igoe enrolled at nearby California University of Pennsylvania where he majored in English with a concentration in journalism. During his time at Cal, Igoe was the college newspaper's sports editor and religious columnist, and was a soccer team manager for three years. "It was like being at a three-year party," he said. "I had so much fun with them and they really took me in even though I can be kind of hard to deal with sometimes." More of Igoe's practical training came as a member of the school's sports information staff. Igoe was one of the game night workers for the school's basketball programs, both of which were national powers and as a result often hosted both Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and NCAA tournaments. After graduating in 1991, Igoe enlisted in the U.S. Air Force with the intention of making a career out of the military. But severe drawdowns in staffing allowed him to stay only two years, which prevented him from achieving his dream of becoming a military training instructor. Following his military service, Igoe quickly found freelance work with several Pittsburgh-area newspapers, including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where he developed his blue-collar approach to the business and utilized his amazing speed that allows him to complete most of his stories, even those of feature-length, in less than 30 minutes, earning him the nickname "Road Runner." As a freelancer, Igoe was assigned to the paper's Mon Valley region and took what was once thought as a dead area for the newspaper and made it a relevant concern as a one-man bureau. Much of Igoe's work appeared in the main edition, including a front-page story on drug testing in local high schools. Yet when it was time for Igoe to move up, he found his way blocked and was later told by the Post-Gazette that he "didn't have the right look" for the newspaper. "What the hell does that mean?" Igoe asks. But while the Post-Gazette failed to recognize Igoe's potential and talent, the paper's rival, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and its parent company made no such mistake. Following three months of freelance work for their satellite newspaper, Monessen's Valley Independent, Igoe was hired on as a full-time staff writer, where he covered the city of Monessen and his alma mater, California University of Pennsylvania, as well as in-depth work covering law enforcement. The same aggressiveness, imagination and energy that served Igoe so well as a free lancer made him the paper's top contributor, and his work often appeared in not only the VI, but also in the larger Greensburg Tribune-Review on a regular basis. Igoe also tried a brief foray into other media, co-hosting a professional wrestling radio show on WESA-FM and co-writing a professional wrestling column with close friend and up-and-coming wrestling star Powerhouse Hughes. The move was no surprise as Igoe had for years dabbled in helping to publicize the growing Pittsburgh-area wrestling scene and has had regular columns in the Pro Wrestling Torch and World Wrestling Insanity websites. "Covering professional wrestling was excellent training for so-called serious journalism," he said. "People call it fake, I disagree. To me, the word conjures up images of people who don't work hard and don't do what they promise. That wasn't the case here. There was certainly nothing fake about the injuries they suffered or the hard work they put in. And there was nothing fake about the good time the fans had at their shows." Also during this time, Igoe became involved with St. Jude Children's Hospital's annual "Country Cares for Kids" radiothons through WDSY-FM. For three of the radiothons, Igoe helped publicize the events and helped out at the events by answering phones and selling merchandise. In those three years, the radiothons raised over $1 million for childhood cancer research. "Childhood cancer: those are two words that should never be used together," Igoe said. In 1999, Igoe felt it was time to move on and accepted a position at the Daily Review in Towanda, PA, where he was named head reporter and would cover local government and police work. The highlight of his year there was his coverage of the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in 2000, where he filed six stories despite less-than-deal conditions. "We had no desk space so we had to just borrow a table where we could," he said. "One time I actually had to type up my work with my computer plugged into a wall socket behind a hot dog stand. We were the smallest newspaper there, but I was able to put out more stories than just about anyone else." But after one year in Towanda, Igoe accepted an offer from the Altoona Mirror in Altoona, PA to become the paper's first political reporter and to live closer to his son, Wayne, who was born in 1996. At Altoona, Igoe worked to make the Mirror a major player in the state's political coverage game. His credits included two Presidential Inaugurations, several visits by presidential candidates (including back-to-back visits from President Bush and Democrat John Kerry within hours of each other), two gubernatorial inaugurations, and other high-profile events. Igoe was also the first and last person to interview Pennsylvania Governor Mark Schweiker during his term of office, a feat believed to have never been done before or since. Small wonder that when Tom Ridge was named the U.S. Director of Homeland Security, Igoe was one of 12 reporters invited to the White House for a press conference in the Roosevelt Room, which was separated by one wall from the Oval Office! Igoe's final year in Altoona produced one wonderful event when he met Nancy Weyandt, whom he would marry two years later. During the last year in Altoona, Nancy was his constant companion and soulmate, and the two were never seen without each other at ballgames, political dinners and other events. Igoe also credits Nancy with being his major support during very difficult times in his life. "I hadn't had much luck on the dating scene," he said. "But when I met Nancy, I just knew this was the greatest opportunity I would ever have at finding happiness. I fell in love with her very quickly and even today, we just can't take being apart from each other." After winning his third Keystone Award in 2005, Igoe left for the Bedford Gazette, a small newspaper in south central Pennsylvania. Despite the drop from a 35,000 circulation paper to a 10,000 circulation paper, Igoe was anxious to be closer to his son, who was now living in nearby Everett. As was usually the case, Igoe was the paper's major contributor while the newspaper was celebrating its 200th year, making it one of the world's oldest newspapers. "It was fun to be part of that," Igoe said. "But eventually, I just had to decide what was left for me there. I didn't feel very satisfied there and I certainly didn't feel like waiting for the 300th anniversary." A new opportunity came for Igoe in 2006 in the form of an inquiry from the Winchester Star in Winchester, VA. The newspaper was looking for a reporter to cover the small but politically-intense Clarke County. After he was offered the position during an interview, it took Igoe little time to make his decision. "This was a definite step up and I was promised the opportunity to move up the ladder into an eventual editor's position," he said. "That was the kicker for me. Plus the Northern Shenandoah Valley was beautiful. It was a lot like home, but had some great touches of the Old South. I felt right at home." Though the work was intense, as Clarke County was in the midst of several major stories, Igoe also enjoyed the freedom to write that his new employers offered him on subjects ranging from the history of POWs in Winchester and book banning to personal interests such as comic books. Later, Igoe was swtiched to the larger Frederick County beat, but his production continued unabated until he parted ways with the company in July and returned to Altoona. Since then, Igoe has discovered the limitless possibilities of online journalism and plans to explore it "until I'm ready to stop. Before that day comes, I'd love to find a good college teaching position somewhere, preferably Cal. That would a great way to end this part of the journey and start many more."