We say goodbye and happy retirement to a longtime reporter here at Newswatch 16.
In recent years, Bob Reynolds covered the coal regions, but decades ago, he gained a reputation being a hard-nosed investigative reporter.
His stories resulted in politicians being indicted and authorities reexamining a death case in Susquehanna County that ended with a doctor being convicted of murder.
How does one condense into minutes the career of a reporter whose work covers decades, a reporter whose story files cover the routine of life as well as the moments that make us all stop and say, 'never could I imagine that.'
Well, truth is you don't. What you do is talk about Bob Reynolds a little; maybe let the images of his stories speak more eloquently for him.
When Bob came to Newswatch 16, tubes made televisions work, photographers carried gear that could make strong men weak, a bureau was something you stored your clothes in at home, not an office where a reporter worked out of.
What it meant was a drive to the day's story, then a drive back, then writing and editing.
That was a beat.
Bob did that day in and day out, in all kinds of weather, to cover all kinds of stories. The roads were long and winding and, after the first few years, traveling them rather boring.
Still Bob did it because the story waiting at the end of that day's drive was worth the trip.
1981: a groundbreaking investigative report into voter fraud in the Pittston area.
1982: a mass murder in Wilkes-Barre, 13 people dead, some the children of the shooter.
1983: the next year, something called giardiasis scared the public; it was in the water.
Another story from the 1980s: Bob and photographer Tom Hovey aboard Skycam 16 chasing a stolen truck that narrowly avoided disasters before being stopped in an empty field.
So it was for Bob Reynolds, the routine, the extraordinary, the shocking; stories that were fun, stories to make you doubt the sanity of the world.
Bob did them all.
Now, it's time to call it a career; our friend Bob Reynolds is retiring from reporting here at WNEP.
He's informed, investigated, questioned and reported his last story here. Our respect for him goes without saying.