Michael Rellahan has passed away.
I have no details, it happened I think at the end of last week. He was in his late 60s. 67 or 68 would be a guess. He came to work for The Daily Local in West Chester, PA in 1982, and he would have just celebrated 43 years with the paper.
Let that sink in: 43 years.
How many print reporters can say that today?
He and I were definitely not friends, more like oil and water. He did not care for me, probably because there will always be old school print reporters who just don’t like those who have only been bloggers. Or it could simply be I am outspoken and an acquired taste.
While some might find it odd for me to write anything, I am saying something out of respect for his craft. He could write. And old school newspaper guys? They are a dying breed as hedge funds etc. continue to gobble up our papers. Newspaper reporting is an art form. I know my dearly departed friend of some years, Tom Murray, whose last job was editor at The Daily Local for a while, respected Rellahan’s abilities. He told me and I remember.
Rellahan brought the stories of Chester County, in particular the courts, to life for us for decades. Court reporting is not fun, I know and have known a few court reporters for print and broadcast and it’s hard work. It’s multiple personalities and egos commingled with hard, horrible, and heartbreaking aspects every single day.
I did really like and dug into quite a few of his stories over the years. He told what a long ago English teacher would have called “word stories.” You could definitely tell when a topic interested him in the courts.
A reporter can’t color crime and justice. A reporter is not a blogger, who may like myself write, but hey opinion is part of the blogging equation. It’s just not necessarily something that old school newspaper guys will appreciate.
I found out he was gone a couple of hours ago when all of sudden a few people messaged me. I was told it was verified by folks in West Chester? I was also told nothing nefarious, just sadly his time.
Rellahan was literally a veteran reporter, one of the very few voices we had left at our local paper The Daily Local. His last article by my count was October 22nd.
I know nothing about his life other than the stories he wrote, but from his own Facebook profile, he was originally from the Cincinnati, OH area and went to Earlham College in Indiana. That was a Quaker oriented institution as per his old blogger profile. He came to this area (he wrote) three years after graduating college. So that would have made him graduating college around 1979 and high school around 1975 I guess right?
https://www.blogger.com/profile/14702729717291479649
He also went to a rather prestigious public high school in Cincinnati called Walnut Hills High School.
Apparently he was a columnist before he was the courts/crime guy. I found some good stuff on his old blogger site:
https://michaelpcolumns.blogspot.com/?m=1
http://michaelrellahancolumns.blogspot.com/?m=1
https://michaelrellahancolumns.blogspot.com/?m=0
As per his own musings he was a columnist until 2007, and after that point he went back to being a reporter. I wonder which he preferred?
Also according to that old blogger account, he liked Dylan, The Beatles, and Wilco. He liked the great outdoors
Here are his article links on Muck Rack:
https://muckrack.com/chescocourtnews/articles
Anyway, that’s all I have got. I am honestly sorry he’s gone as I know he leaves friends and family behind who will miss him and cared for and loved him. If somewhere they post funeral information or a formal obituary, I will of course share it.
Rellahan was an old school newspaper guy. There aren’t enough of those left. Again, he wasn’t someone I knew personally, but I will miss his articles. On Muck Rack they list 8900 articles. That is a body of work one has to respect.
Life is short. Live it well.
Pax
This was a really nice, fair post, Carla. And accurate on all counts, the facts and, in my view, your thoughts. Thank you for it. If there is anything else you’d like to know about Mike, you can reach out to me via facebook or any other way you know how.
This is probably the only thing I’m going to write other than sharing if they have a service for him or a written obituary. If you know anyone in Ohio, where he was from, they should really write something there.
The Local is planning a front page column about Mike at some point in the next few days. I’m still working with his sisters in Cincy on when to have his Memorial Service which will be held at Downingtown Friends (Quaker) Meeting.
Thank you very much
I just thanked him for covering courthouse news. What a stand up fellow he was. I will really miss seeing Michael Rellahan around the Justice Center.
I remember him coming in to the courtroom when there was the case about the man who shot the dogs years ago further out in West Vincent. And although I didn’t know him personally , I remembered seeing him in the courthouse when I had jury duty last time.
He was a dedicated reporter. He replaced me at the Suburban and Wayne Times after i left my reporting position there to go on to the Main Line Times. So sad to hear this news. He had become the last chronicler of Chester County news. His institutional knowledge of the county cannot be replaced.
And I remember you from both the suburban and Wayne and Main Line times. Of course I remember when the Main Line times was printed in its own building. Like the inquirer and the Daily Local as a matter of fact. All of these old school reporters the people that actually told our stories are just gone, and these were the people that kept our local stuff together. And regional papers just don’t get that we need more coverage. And our local papers are now owned by hedge funds who don’t care they’re just a number on the balance sheet.
Mike was my cousin. We are devastated. He was a wonderful story teller – both verbally and on the page. A wonderful laugh. A deep loss for our family. Thank you for this article.
I am truly sorry for your loss. And although he and I were like oil and water because I am an opinionated blogger and he was an old school newspaper guy, I read all of his articles and he was one of our remaining voices when we didn’t have many left
He was fair, witty, funny, objective, a great local historian, and the world was a better place with him in it. I genuinely liked and respected him. He took the time to tell the meaning behind stories, and Chester County benefited greatly from his presence.