An Idaho iconoclast steps down.

When Bill Hall arrived at Idaho's Lewiston Morning Tribune in 1965, his future publisher wondered whether Hall was feisty enough to lead the family-owned daily's editorial page.

"Our readers were accustomed to a hard-hitting opinion style and they rather enjoyed being offended," A.L. "Butch" Alford Jr. recalled. "My concern was that young Bill Hall would be vanilla pudding."

Alford need not have worried. "Hall immediately served notice that vanilla pudding was not his breakfast staple," says Alford, who became the Tribune's editor and publisher in 1968 after his father's death.

Hall brought liberal views, an unpretentious writing style, and a sense of humor to his new job. For the past 37 years -- with the exception of a sabbatical in the mid-1970s -- he has been provoking, challenging, and entertaining the Tribune's readers in north- central Idaho and southeastern Washington.

The 25,000-circulation Tribune identifies the writers of its editorials by their initials at the end of each piece. On June 30, the "B.H." era will end when Hall retires. He plans to write a signed column once a week, but its content will more often be humorous than political.

"There are not many papers in the United States where the best-read page is the editorial page," says James E. "Jay" Shelledy, editor of the Salt Lake Tribune and a former Lewiston Tribune reporter and editor. "Without question, Hall is the best-known journalist in the state's history."

Fred Fiske, former NCEW president, says Hall's ability to outrage the Tribune's conservative readers with left-of-center commentary contributed to his success. "Many readers may have depended on Bill's editorials to rile them up and keep their blood flowing through cold Idaho winters," says Fiske, senior editorial writer for the Post-Standard of Syracuse, New York. "I can't name an editorial page that challenged the political conventions of its readership more than Bill Hall's in the Lewiston Tribune."

Hall takes pride in the hundreds of letters to the editor that the paper publishes each year, many of them disagreeing with his positions and those of his editorial page colleague, Jim Fisher.

"I'd a lot rather read a newspaper that I disagree with that says something than one that takes both sides," Hall says. "With the 'on the other hand' style of editorial writing, you end up with your nose in your eggs in the morning."

Tribune readers' noses are in no such danger. Hall delights in skewering pompous politicians, blasting bureaucratic snafus, and making light of his readers' pastimes and prejudices -- often in the bluntest of terms. Consider these excerpts from editorials this winter:

* A few weeks after President Bush referred to an "axis of evil" supporting global terrorism, Hall wrote: "Education in Idaho is afflicted today with an axis of ignorance made up of the Idaho Senate, the Idaho House, and Coy. Dirk Kempthorne. Together they constitute a can't do crew whose prime focus is not on improving Idaho schools but on explaining to the voters how unreasonable it is to expect improvements in education."

* Pointing out that the legislature's decision to cut higher education budgets led directly to tuition increases at the state's colleges and universities, he declared: "One more time: Tuition is a tax. ... You did raise taxes. You raised the tax on opportunity and that is one of the most reckless and unfair taxes of all."

* Responding to a proposal that citizens wildlife councils nominate members of the Idaho Fish and Game Commission, Hall observed, "That could be a two-edged sword because it might tend to give a disproportionate voice to those chronic whiners who want to blame state biologists every time they get too drunk, inept, or unlucky to kill an elk."

Hall acknowledges that he gets away with this hard-hitting approach because of his publisher's unwavering support. "All of my guts are in Butch Alford's body," Hall often declares, grateful for his boss's ability to deflect complaints. "Word comes to me that he takes a lot of heat from the country club crowd because of me and [Jim] Fisher, but he never says a word to me."

For his part, Alford -- whose grandfather and great-uncle founded the Tribune in 1892 -- sees a lively editorial page as part of the paper's mission. "The highest compliment on any morning is when someone wails about an editorial, on the phone or in person," he says. "The greatest insult is when a reader doesn't care."

Alford gives his editorial writers wide latitude, recognizing the value of a free-wheeling editorial philosophy. While Alford meets regularly with Hall and Fisher and sees the editorials before publication on days that he's in the office, there is no formal editorial board. "An editorial board is bureaucratic and cumbersome, producing oatmeal editorials -- if not vanilla pudding," he says.

Alford can count on two hands the number of times in his 34 years as publisher that he has rejected an editorial. "It's impossible for three people to agree 100% of the time, but it's in excess of 99%," he says. On the rare occasion when Alford vetoes an editorial, it usually means that the page hasn't previously addressed the issue and needs to consider it more fully, he says.

"Many editorial pages couch themselves in false security by avoiding making enemies," Alford says. "That's not our style." And when complaining readers threaten to cancel their subscriptions, Alford volunteers to turn their names and addresses over to the Circulation Department. Few accept his offer.

Hall grew up on a farm in what is now a suburb of Boise. He attended Idaho State College (now Idaho State University) before going to work for the Idaho State Journal in Pocatello. After seven years as a reporter and editor there, Hall moved to Lewiston to become the Tribune's editorial page editor.

In 1975, Hall resigned to become press secretary to the late Senator Frank Church of Idaho, who was planning to run for president. "Like a drama critic who had always believed he could write a play himself, I had come to believe, after 15 years as a political critic, that I just might a pretty fair country strategist if ever placed at the elbow of a presidential contender," Hall wrote in his memoir of that experience, Frank Church, D.C., and Me. After Jimmy Carter sewed up the Democratic nomination for president in 1976, Hall, eager to replant his roots in the Northwest, returned to his previous position at the Tribune.

In 1979, Alford assigned a second full-time writer to the editorial page, and Hall's routine shifted. Instead of writing 10 editorials and two columns a week, he wrote seven editorials and four columns. His column evolved from political analysis to humorous reflections on everyday life. "Writing the column had an unexpected dividend -- it took my horns off," Hall observes. "My editorials worked better because I did the family heartstring stuff and the jolly columns."

Mindy Cameron, a former managing editor of the Lewiston Tribune and until last year, editorial page editor of the Seattle Times, shares that assessment. "That he could later evolve into a humor and lifestyle columnist, occasionally putting his tender heart on display, is a mark of his humanity and versatility," Cameron says.

Another Hall admirer is Rod Gramer, news director at KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon, and a former editorial page editor for the Idaho Statesman in Boise. "Bill Hall is to editorial writing what Michael Jordan is to basketball: Other people write editorials, but nobody plays the game with

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RELATED ARTICLE: Bill Hall's advice: Serve punch first

One of my disappointments in editorial writing that I see elsewhere is how little effort is made to make a dry essay palatable. An editorial may be the last thing that any normal person would want to read in a newspaper. It's an essay, and most people hated essays in high school. Who wants to read a damn essay? It is the one part of the paper you have to work hardest at selling.

Given that, I'm really surprised at how boring headlines and lead paragraphs are on 50% of the editorials I read. I see headlines that say something like "City Council makes right move" -- I don't think I'll read that. No one reads a newspaper cover to cover any more -- there is too much Internet, too much cable television, too many sunny days begging for our time.

An editorial writer has to light to be lively and intriguing. The headline is the bait, and the first line is the hook. That's the way you and I read -- if a headline grabs us, we'll read the first paragraph, and if the first paragraph puts us to sleep, the rest of the editorial is a waste of the writer's time.

Kenton Bird, an assistant professor in the University of Idaho School of Communication, wrote editorials for 10 years for the Lewiston Tribune's sister paper. E-mail him [e-mail]