Steve Ranson: Sons of the Rurals

Although journalist Guy Clifton grew up “deep” in rural Nevada in the small town of Gabbs, he never forgot his Silver State roots after he moved to the big city to attend the University of Nevada, Reno.

There, he refined his impeccable skills for more than two decades at the Reno Gazette-Journal.

“Sons of the Rurals” is a phrase coined for those who revere the vast, open land beyond the boundaries of Reno, Las Vegas and Carson City and who embellish the life of its people and their lifestyles and thinking. As a reporter, Guy wrote about those people for decades.

Like many of us who feel that gritty Nevada dirt that whirls across the Great Basin and sweeps through miles of sagebrush, Guy easily assimilated into the “Sons of the Rurals” as a friend whose heart never left the small towns and their people. Journalists such as Elko’s Anthony Mori, Winnemucca’s Tony Erquiaga, Yerington’s retired newsman Keith Trout who have covered the people and events and sports never lose their sense of the rugged West.

Guy, who died Friday night at the young age of 62, never lost sight of who he was or from where he came.

Rural true grit

Nevada Hall of Fame journalist and retired Reno Gazette-Journal sports editor Ray Hagar recognized that grit. Upon learning of Guy’s death, Ray took his readers back to Gabbs, an out-of-the-way community of several hundred souls neatly tucked on State Route 361.

“I first met guy when I was a young sportswriter for the Reno Gazette Journal who covered high school sports. Guy was an all-state nose guard for the Gabbs High Tarantulas, a very small school that played 8-man football. I was invited to speak at the Gabbs High football banquet, and it was there I met young Mr. Clifton,” Hagar recalled.

Guy received his first break to enter the world of journalism when former RGJ sports editor Mike Blackwell offered the Gabbs flash a job as clerk/stringer when he relocated to Reno to attend the University of Nevada.

Over time, Guy grew into the position as a dedicated sportswriter who began to develop his boxing and rodeo reporting skills. Guy and Hagar co-authored a book on the Jack Johnson and James Jeffries fight, which was released on the 100th anniversary of the “Fight of the Century.”

A special breed of sportswriter attends numerous rodeo and boxing cards and knows the intricacies of each event. Rodeo was one of many mutual sports languages Guy and I talked — him from the years reporting from the Reno Rodeo and me covering high-school rodeo and the Silver State International Rodeo in Fallon for more than 20 years.

There was something about that churned up arena dirt and the pungent smell of livestock that put us behind the chute to watch a bull rider hanging on for the thrill of his life or a cowgirl making a precise turn around a barrel without her horse knocking it over.

Before I retired as editor and general manager of the LVN in 2017, Guy and I communicated regularly either by phone or email, and after that time by Facebook messenger. When Gannett purged many Reno journalists from its ranks in 2016, Guy was one of them. Guy struggled with the decision and worried about the future, yet he remained optimistic he would find another journalism job.

In one way or another, we all had his back.

In the meantime, I had a sports editor’s opening, but Guy felt the commute from his Reno home to Fallon and the crazy hours wouldn’t work. Like me, he was a dog dad and didn’t want to leave his fur kids alone.

Life of coincidences

Guy also had a love for Fallon, especially after his parents Miller and Lorraine left Gabbs. Miller worked 30 years for Basic Magnesium, the area’s largest employer, and his mother was employed by Sierra Pacific Power Company (NV Energy) and the U.S. Postal Service where she became postmaster for a few years. The city of Fallon hired his brother Joe until his untimely death in 2010. The coincidences in life never cease, though. Joe and my second-oldest son worked together in the same department.

Miller and Lorraine also preceded Guy to Heaven’s door in 2018 and 2020, respectively.

Yes, life is full of coincidences, especially after I accepted a teaching and coaching position at Wells High School, located far, far away in the northeastern part of Nevada. That’s where I also sharpened my teeth on community journalism and assisted my former wife to produce a small, weekly newspaper, which was owned by the Elko Daily Free Press.

Guy knows about small-town events and sports. They’re just as important as a crash on Main Street or the Wolf Pack scoring a touchdown.

One of my former Wells High School students, Bill Beller, began his freshman year in 1976 after his parents moved to Wells from Gabbs. It was later in life when visiting with Bill about six years ago in Arizona, I learned Guy and he were in the same grades for four grades at Gabbs.

“Tarantulas (the Gabbs mascot) for life” would be their rallying cry from fourth through seventh grades. Either Beller would go to Guy’s house or vice versa.

 “We would sit around and play football games,” Beller said. “Most of time we would go over to each other’s house and do that.”

Beller said Gabbs was a small town for kids, but once the students left, “they ended up doing some pretty cool things.”

When they were seniors, Beller said they reconnected at Nevada Boys State and in their adult lives, he kept abreast of Guy’s career. Guy’s death has shaken Beller as it has others in western Nevada.

“I’ve never seen so many people write about Guy,” Beller said.

Beller noted Guy also wrote his father’s obituary when Miller died six years ago. Yet, it was Guy’s writing that Beller will remember. He called Guy’s monthly newsletter on former Sagebrush reporters and events interesting to read.

“It took me back a bit in Nevada,” Beller reminisced.

Guy kept connected to Fallon first through his parents, both of whom faithfully read the LVN. Before I retired, my reporter reached out to Guy about the importance of the rural newspaper and my three decades with the paper.

 “People don’t go into local journalism for the money, and there is no such thing as a 40-hour week in that world,” Guy said. “It’s all about the community and the people. He’s been a great champion of Fallon.”

Small world

Guy began a monthly newsletter on former and current Sagebrush reporters and events. I, like many others, looked forward to each issue. He sent me a message on Aug. 8, 2023, with another bit of news that surprised him. He included a photo.

“Steve, was the Glen Ranson of Frank McCulloch’s 1941 Sagebrush staff any relation?  He looks like one of your sons in this pic!”

Another small world moment.

Glen Ranson, one of my dad’s uncles, was an advertising executive with a newspaper in the San Francisco Bay Area. He died 20 years ago.

While most of his readers had ties to the Sagebrush newspaper including my older son Thomas, who worked there in sports for a year-and-a-half almost 20 years ago, I was a defector. Although I took many journalism classes with Sagebrush staffers, I opted to take the broadcast route and worked part-time for both university-run KUNR Radio as an announcer, newscaster and play-by-play sports announcer, and a Reno radio station where I also announced and wrote and presented local news.

Guy and I constantly communicated about newspaper layoffs in Nevada and other states. Once vibrant newspaper rooms became crypts as owners sold out for the best offer. Hedge fund companies bought scores of newspapers, consolidated the newsrooms and then laid off scores of employees.

“It’s a sad day for journalism,” I told Guy in a 2018 posting.

“Just awful,” he replied. “I’ve long said that when newspapers’ obituaries are written, the cause of death is suicide.”

Yet, we still had plenty to discuss from the Fallon Lions Club free fishing day to other journalists we both knew. He helped me find contacts for stories and likewise. He would ask me a military or veterans question, and if I didn’t know, I researched and responded in a day or two.

Guy dropped me a note on an article I wrote about astronauts who trained at the Carson Sink north of Fallon during the 1950s and 1960s. The article coincided with the 50th anniversary of man landing on the moon.

Hall of Fame

Early in 2023 when I was still on a statewide newspaper board before retiring, Guy began to pick my brain about former Sagebrush or RGJ reporters to nominate to the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame. He rattled off names, and I directed him to the process.

Then, out of the blue, he said, “Some guy named Ranson should be there, too. I'll submit nominations if someone can direct me.”

In his short 62 years, Guy packed his life with many accolades and awards.

“His greatest honor came last year when he was honored as a ‘Distinguished Nevadan,’ the highest honored bestowed by the University of Nevada,” Hagar said.

Another newspaper convention is upon us with the 2024 Hall of Fame induction set for Saturday. One of Guy’s Sagebrush idols, newspaperman Frank McCulloch, will be inducted.

The NPA has made the right move to include Guy posthumously into the Nevada Newspaper Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024 — a professionally diverse groups of journalists who made a powerful impact on the state.

As an inductee, I am honored to share the floor with the other seven inductees and now Guy.

After all, we both are truly “Sons of the Rurals.”

Steve Ranson, who has spent more than four decades covering rural Nevada, is editor emeritus of the Lahontan Valley News.