Former Tribune-Review editor 'Jim' Yadamec loved journalism — but his family even more

John “Jim” Yadamec was a longtime newspaper editor, sports editor and outdoors columnist for three newspapers who loved being a journalist and loved spending time with family and friends even more.

“I gained a lot of respect for him. He was an excellent model of a journalist,” said Bob Broderick of Connellsville, who worked with Yadamec at both the Uniontown Herald Standard and the Tribune-Review in Greensburg.

“He was a journalist,” said his daughter, Susan Baumgard of Coal Center.

Yadamec, 89, of Coal Center, died Monday, Nov. 11, 2024.

He was born March 21, 1935, the only child of the late Peter and Helen Yadamec. After graduating from the former German Township High School in 1953, he avoided following his father’s footsteps into a Fayette County coal mine by going to college at Notre Dame.

But a bout with food poisoning during his freshman year resulted in him recovering back home, said his wife, Barbara Vig Yadamec. He then transferred to Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1957.

Before he could start on any career path, however, the U.S. Army drafted him and stationed him at Fort Knox, Ky. He served in the Army from 1958-1960.

Barbara recalled how she met her future husband of 57 years at what was then Fiedor’s Grove, a popular polka band venue in Mt. Pleasant Township. She was all of 18 and was only able to get into the club by accompanying her uncle when his band played there. She loved to dance, and that’s how she hit it off him.

“He was a great dancer,” Barbara said.

Yadamec started working at the former Brownsville Telegraph in the early 1960s. Barbara recalled the story how, almost 61 years ago, he learned about the assassination of President Kennedy on the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1963. He had gone to lunch in town when two people came running into the restaurant and shouted that the president had been shot, prompting him to head back to the newsroom for a long time at work.

He later moved to the Uniontown Herald Standard/The Evening Standard where he was nighttime editor.

“He demanded excellence in journalism and demanded that of himself. You wanted to do good to satisfy him,” said Broderick, who started working with Yadamec in 1968 at what had become the Herald-Standard.

Frank “Steve” Halvonik, one of the reporters he worked with at both the Uniontown Herald Standard and the Tribune-Review, recalled how Yadamec mentored a stable of young reporters who would go on to be successful.

“It’s a cliche to say ‘I owe my career to someone,’ but a lot of journalists do owe the success in their career to Yadamec, Halvonik said.

“He was a role model for a staff that was really young,” Halvonik said. “Jim taught us how to be professionals.”

At the Herald-Standard he penned two popular outdoors columns, “Hunter’s Hideaway” and “Fishing with Ike.” Barbara said someone had told him that he was the favorite outdoors editor of Pittsburgh Steelers great Jack Lambert, also an avid outdoorsman.

Susan Baumgard described her father as an avid sportsman, but one whose true love was fishing.

“Whether it be long days with his brothers-in-laws or his two daughters, he found peace with a pole in his hand,” Susan said.

Yadamec moved to the Tribune-Review around 1981 and finished his career in 2001 at the Tribune Review, where he and Broderick worked together. Yadamec was sports and outdoors editor, putting together a popular outdoors page for the Sunday paper.

Although he worked in Greensburg, he still lived in McClellandtown and drove close to 40 miles to work, said his daughter, Beth Yadamec of Penn Township.

“He gave us the gift of growing up in small-town Fayette County,” the safety of a small town, Beth Yadamec said.

Halvonik said Yadamec influenced them by how devoted he was to his family.

“He was a dedicated newsman but never at the expense of his family,” Halvonik said. “He talked to us all the time about Barb and Susan and Beth, and always called home from the newsroom every evening.”

Beth Yadamec recalled how he would take her and his sister trout fishing the first week of the season. He would spend time with his daughters helping stock trout in area streams.

For his devotion to the outdoors and decades writing about hunting and fishing, Yadamec was recognized by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and Pennsylvania Game Commission for his promotion of outdoor recreation with a print of a beautiful fish with his name on it, Barbara said.

Beth Yadamec said that she loves to read and credited her father for that.

“He gave me the greatest gift — the love of reading,” she said.

Her father had sense of humor that not everyone could share, that at times only he got, Beth Yadamec said. At the same time, he could be ornery, but in a wonderful way, she said.

He loved spending time with his grandchildren, Matilyn Collins and Logan Baumgard.

“He spent his time singing country music while carrying them up and down the hall, or giving them a small gift everyday for first several years of their life,” said their mother. Susan Baumgard.

Friends will be received from 2 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Ashley D.X. Nye Cremation Care & Funeral Home Inc., 408 Depot St., Youngwood. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Cecilia Catholic Church 1571 Grindstone Road, Grindstone. Memorials may be made to the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission, 1601 Elmerton Ave. Harrisburg, PA 17110, noting “Jim Yadamec” in the memo of the check.