Wes Skillings retired from newspaper journalism on April 1, 2011, after 38 years as a reporter, columnist and editor where, among his assignments for three different newspapers, he covered everything from municipal meetings to murder trials. He is a Vietnam vet with a BA in English from Mansfield (PA) University, formerly Mansfield State College, where he won a national writing award with an essay in The Atlantic Magazine Creative Writing Contests for College Students.