Judith Brunswick

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Brunswick, Judith a longtime and much-loved editor at the St. Pioneer Press, died on February 7th after a more than two-year battle with extraovarian peritoneal cancer. She was 69 and would have turned 70 on Valentine's Day. Judy was the oldest of three daughters raised by Patricia and Wayne Tripp, who operated their family dairy farm in the small village of Bowerston, Ohio, near the Pennsylvania border. Judy's deep love of music started at the farm household, where the daughters were treated to everything from Broadway to Strauss. Their mother played the piano and it was in childhood that they all discovered Judy had perfect pitch. It made her a favorite in school music classes, summer music camps and church choirs. Judy loved music right back, starting her lifelong habit of going to sleep with a transistor radio tucked to her ear, the better to hear a wider variety of music and talk. Judy turned to a different career in college, studying English with a mind set to journalism. She graduated from Capital University in central Ohio in 1976 and worked at a newspaper in Newark, Ohio, before landing at The Daily News in Dayton, Ohio. There, she attracted the attention of a colleague, a reporter named Mark Brunswick, who was so taken with the cute copy editor that he would fob pennies at her as she crossed by his desk to go to the ladies' room. "I was a feckless youth," Mark said recently in his defense. Regardless, the pennies worked. They grew to know each other after work hours in the newspaper bar next to the paper, The Moraine Embassy. The pair married in Dayton, Ohio, on February 25, 1984. They would have celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this year. Their son, Peter, was born Jan. 14th, 1986. Judy joined The St. Paul Pioneer Press in 1987, working as the copy editor for the Pioneer's business desk, where she practiced fastidious editing of the daily news and instructed the uninitiated in the correct pronunciation of the Nikkei, the Tokyo stock exchange. Judy was known as a comforting colleague who offered support to younger journalists - especially women - and who could be trusted for a witty aside that made your day better. Her colleagues posted many tributes on a Facebook page where her death was announced. "Judy really was a twinkling star in the newsroom firmament," observed Kraig Odden, a colleague. "Smart, kind and so much fun." Another colleague noted that there were usually gusts of laughter coming from the corner of the Pioneer Press newsroom where the business desk was located. "Most of it started with some hilarious story or remark from Judy," Rob Hubbard wrote. Judy moved to the Web desk in 2010 and retired in 2016, spending some of her time as a freelance book editor. Her interests and expertise were eclectic, from jazz to cats (including her Pandemic rescues Puck and Dolly) to M.C. Escher prints, Flow Blue China and home textiles of all vintages. If you were a friend of Judy's you didn't really need Google; you had her big brain. Or, as longtime friend Kim Yeager put it, "You could almost see it (her brain) crackle." Unfailingly polite, Judy carried that hallmark with her into her illness, amazing her doctors, nurses and hospice workers with her kind appreciation and gratefulness for their efforts. As one wrote in a card from her caretakers, "We will miss Judy so much. She was such a light." In addition to Mark and Peter of Minneapolis, Judy is survived by her sisters, Jill McGruder (Larry) of Cincinnati and Joyce Scherrer (Doug) of Port Charlotte, FL; niece Megan Shields (Larry) and great-nephew, Henry, of Cincinnati, and nephews Troy Dalpiaz, of Urichsville, Ohio and Nate Dalpiaz, of North Port, Fla. A memorial service is scheduled MARCH 23 at 2PM at Gill Brothers Funeral Home, 5801 Lyndale Avenue South in Minneapolis, with a visitation one hour beforehand. Memorials are preferred to ThisOldHorse.org, Hastings, Minn., or consider donating blood. Gillbrothers.com 763-531-1777

Published on March 17, 2024