Board selects Chip Rowe as replacement
Kevin E. Foley, who has served as the managing editor of The Highlands Current (formerly Philipstown.info and The Paper) for over five years, will step down at the end of August.
Foley, 65, informed the newspaper’s board in early July that he would be moving to Massachusetts, where his wife, Mary Anne Myers, has a new job. The board of Highlands Current, Inc., the non-profit that publishes The Current and highlandscurrent.com, has named Associate Editor Chip Rowe to succeed Foley, effective with the Sept. 2 issue.
In a statement, the 10 board members said: “We are very sorry to see Kevin leaving this job as he has been a steady guide for the enterprise from its start. His knowledge of the community, ideas for growth and dedication to a fair presentation of our local news have helped The Current build readership in Philipstown and Beacon and win awards for its coverage.
“Chip Rowe has been working closely with Kevin and the staff for several years, and the board is pleased that he has agreed now to take the position of managing editor. He has served The Current well as associate editor in major editing and web-management capacities, and we look forward to the leadership he will provide.”
Foley joined Philipstown.info, the forerunner of The Current, in January 2011 and was appointed managing editor six months later by founder and publisher Gordon Stewart. (The site had launched on July 4, 2010.) In June 2012, Stewart asked Foley to also oversee a weekly print newspaper, The Paper.
In the wake of Stewart’s death in November 2014, Foley worked with a board of directors assembled by Stewart to form a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which allows for tax-deductible contributions for operations.
Foley led the effort to rebrand The Paper as The Highlands Current in April and to expand news coverage into Beacon.
A resident of Nelsonville for 10 years, Foley is relocating to Northampton, Mass., where Myers has been named program director for Bard Microcollege, Holyoke, a Bard College pilot project to bring an accredited Associate in Arts program to young mothers with limited means. Myers is also a contributor to The Current, best known for the award-winning One Poem a Day Won’t Kill You, a video series of readers reciting favorite poems posted during National Poetry Month in April.
“I am sad to be leaving this wonderful town and region and more especially the colleagues with whom I have worked so hard to make our paper and website such a success with readers and advertisers,” Foley said. “I have learned so much from the people whose bylines and credits have appeared on these pages. I am also so appreciative to the board members who stepped up to keep Gordon’s dream alive and kicking.
“But I am also very excited to be supporting Mary Anne in her pursuit of this new venture, which might very well help create a new way of envisioning and delivering a college education to people, which is so important to the progress of our society,” he said.
“With Chip I believe I am turning over the reins to someone with the skills, energy and professionalism to grow the paper, website and our digital presence in many ways.”
Rowe, 49, who has been with The Current since 2013, is a longtime magazine editor and writer who began his career as a reporter for newspapers in Michigan, Idaho and South Dakota. The Garrison resident has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University.
“I can’t wait to get started,” he said. “Kevin and the rest of the staff have given the Philipstown and Beacon communities a newspaper that captures the special qualities of the Hudson Highlands, and I hope to build on that.”
Farewell wonderful community members. Hope the new chapter in your lives will be as interesting as this one was.
Good luck to you, Kevin. For five years, you’ve fought the good fight… Enjoy life in Massachusetts.
Many thanks are due to Kevin for playing such an important role in promoting objective, thought-provoking and unifying discourse in our community. His contributions to weekly news reporting will be much missed for their objectivity and intelligence.
During my time as chairman of the Cold Spring Planning Board, Kevin Foley attended our meetings and reported on our proceedings. His coverage was always accurate, fair and informative, and there was no bias whatsoever in his writing. He raised an eyebrow if he thought it important to the story, but he never tried to steer his readers to his own opinion, if indeed he had one. That I did not know if he had one is a sign of his professionalism, which I will greatly miss in his work, then and now. His contribution to our community during the last five years cannot be overstated. Thank you, Kevin, for your service and for your integrity.
I am going to miss having Kevin Foley edit and/or approve my many comments as he has done for the last several years. Although I’m sure we don’t see eye to eye on many of the political issues that have been written about, (often at great length by truly), Mr. Foley has always been fair, balanced and professional when it came to editing these forums. To be honest, I was often shocked that he published some of my more controversial comments because I think they were so opposite of his own views and probably even the majority views of the Current.
For me the issue has always been about Free Speech and it has been my experience that under Kevin’s watch, that principle has been alive and well at the Paper and now the Current. He may not have agreed with what I was saying, but he respected my right to not only say it, but publish it as well. For that we can all be grateful. God speed in your new endeavors with your family and friends. You are leaving some big shoes to fill.
Best in your new surroundings. We will miss you and welcome Chip. The Current is in good hands and a star in our community.
Sheilah and Bert Rechtschaffer
Thank you for all for these generous comments. I have received many others personally through email and in person on Main St. I am proud of the work I did with my colleagues in creating a credible, honest, interesting community newspaper and website. I leave the operation in good hands; not only Chip’s as editor but all the others whose names appear on the masthead and the pages. During my time here I have had the great privilege of meeting, working with and covering many wonderful people. I will carry the memory with me always.
And we will carry wonderful memories of you, Kevin. Good luck.