Page 31 - South Mississippi Living - October, 2019

> Roland Weeks saw the Sun Herald through many changes during his tenure.
“My father always said I was someone that wanted to do everything and not very well,” Weeks said. “He was the kind of guy who wanted to do one thing at a time. My whole life has been me wandering around and doing a lot of different things.”
At 83, Weeks is a ruggedly handsome man, dressed in a pressed blue Polo Oxford cloth shirt, neatly tucked into his blue jeans. He has piercing blue eyes that never wander from his direct eye contact-gaze as he speaks. He chooses his words carefully and speaks deliberately. A native of Charleston, South Carolina, he graduated from Clemson University with a degree in engineering.
“I worked for two years as an engineer and served in the Air Force for two years,” he said. “I was offered a job at a newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, and I had some reservations about the job, but I accepted it with
the understanding that I was going to be something of a generalist. I worked there for five years, one year in each department at the newspaper. At the end of the five years, they bought the Daily Herald and sent me down here.”
Weeks arrived in South Mississippi in 1968, one year before Hurricane Camille devastated the Mississippi Gulf Coast. During his tenure, the paper was bought by Knight Ridder, and, later, McClatchy. It was his service during Hurricane Camille that cemented his legacy as a publishing legend and a community leader in South Mississippi.
“I came here when I was 32 and I
was a bit wet behind the ears,” he said, reflecting over his more than three-decades-long career at the Sun Herald. “One of the best things that happened to my career was Hurricane Camille because, before that, I was
just wandering around wondering what I was supposed to do. I took over
during Camille and helped with the recovery effort. We didn’t miss any newspapers. I called Columbia and told them we need to have a paper the next day after the storm. They flew a plane in with the newspapers and we had a newspaper the next day after the storm.”
After helping to lead the recovery after the storm, Weeks said his next task was to help bring the Coast together as a symbiotic cohesive community. For many, he is as well- remembered for his community service as he is for his commitment to journalistic excellence during his years at the Sun Herald.
“Roland Weeks was an amazing mentor,” said former Sun Herald publisher Ricky Matthews. “He
< Receiving YMCA Humanitarian Award.
taught us how to lead a newspaper that serves the community. His
efforts after Camille inspired us with a sense of mission and determination to never miss an edition of the Sun Herald. Roland believed strongly the Mississippi Gulf Coast had to learn
to speak with one voice on common issues. Our Coast is stronger today because of his leadership and vision.”
For Weeks, the accolades and pats on the back are nice, but he takes it
"Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen."
all in a stride. Much like the great Ulysses from Tennyson’s poem of the same name, he remains strong in will. A humble man on a continual mission “to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.”
“I never wanted to be the face of the Sun Herald,” he said. “I only wanted to help behind the scenes. I believed in hiring good people and giving them the support they needed to succeed.”
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October 2019 • SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living 31