Change is ever present. It is no different here at Lee Publications.
After 18 dedicated years writing and working for Lee Publications including the past seven years as Editor of Hard Hat News, North American Quarry News and Waste Handling Equipment News, Jon Casey has made retirement plans for spring 2017.
Jon will continue overseeing NAQN and WHEN until his effective retirement date in 2017, but has handed over the controls of Hard Hat News to Colleen Suo starting with the September issue. Colleen will eventually take over the other two publications as well.
Jon reflects, “In August 2009, I was offered the opportunity to be the editor of the three construction magazines, Hard Hat News, North American Quarry News and Waste Handling Equipment News.
“Since then, I’ve devoted my efforts to providing end-user content for readers in these industries. Our publications focus on the equipment of those industries and the people that use it. My primary mission is to work with product manufacturers and service companies to help them tell their stories from their customer’s point of view.
“Later this year, I will celebrate my 70th birthday. My wife Kathy and I are planning to retire sometime in the spring of 2017 with the hope of doing some family traveling and working on at least one book that I’ve been wanting to write for a number of years. I may also work on a book of memoirs that will recall my work over the 19 years of writing and editing for Lee Publications. Along the way, I’ve had countless opportunities to meet a myriad of remarkable people who have devoted their lives to excellence in the construction and farming industries that I reported upon over those many years.”
Colleen has been Assistant Editor for several of the agricultural trade magazines at Lee Publications since January of this year and has been training under Jon’s tutelage for a couple of months. She will continue to rely on his advice as needed during the transition period.
Jon plans to continue submitting articles “to Lee Pub until the end of my days. I’m encouraged to do so by one of my frequent free-lance writers for Hard Hat News. He is 85 years old and still going strong. Another of my writing friends for Lee Pub is in his mid-70s and still very much a part of the Agriculture reporting scene. So I have excellent examples to follow.”
We hope you will join us all in wishing both Jon and Colleen bright futures.