After what he calls “a cool 50 years in the newspaper business,” David Corcoran, the editor of Science Times, has decided to “explore Life After.”
“My last day here is Dec. 19,” he told me in an email, adding that he would “miss the job and the people, including the great freelance writers I’ve had the privilege of working with.”
Corcoran came to Science Times without any background in science, but he proved to be a quick learner. And he has guided the section with a steady hand.
More from Corcoran:
I was incredibly lucky to stumble into the Science Times job. I have no science background, but the editors I’ve worked for — Cory Dean, Laura Chang and now Barbara Strauch — were willing to overlook that in favor of such journalism and people skills as I bring to the enterprise. Holy cow, working with John Wilford, Dennis Overbye, Jim Gorman, Ben Carey, Henry Fountain and the entire cast here — it’s been the dream job I never even dreamed of.
Corcoran reports that no successor has yet been chosen. The Times, he said, is posting the job internally “but may consider outside candidates.”
The Tracker wishes David well.
-Paul Raeburn
I’m simultaneously thrilled for David and deeply saddened because I had never had the opportunity to work with him as a editor, though I greatly enjoyed talking with him about possible stories at conferences and events. I wish him the best in his future endeavors.
David is very possibly the best editor I’ve ever had. Exacting and demanding in the most graceful, steady, constructive way; deeply respectful and considerate; a wonderful sense of what’s important and how to make that plain. And — it must be the poet in him — the finest, most graceful, most invisible, most efficient, and most astute blue pen I’ve ever had touch my prose. Every edit improves — and always by clarifying the writer’s voice rather than obscuring it.
I wish they could clone this, but, alas, they don’t make many like David Corcoran. I’ll miss him, and wish him all the best.