A Salute to Susan Anderson

A Salute to Susan Anderson

Susan Anderson lost her long fight with cancer last night, and those of us who knew her feel that loss in our bones.

In 1980, she and her friend, fellow journalist Joe Russin, left successful media careers in San Francisco and made their way to Wyoming. Joe joined the Casper Star Tribune. Susan went looking for her first opportunity in Wyoming broadcasting.

I was Vice President and General Manager of KTWO Television and KTWO Radio then, and our commitment to news was strong. Experience like Susan’s didn’t come along often in Wyoming in those days.

Pete Williams, our News Director, gave her a tour of the station. It wasn’t KRON in San Francisco. It wasn’t shiny. But it was real, and it mattered. When she came to my office, it was clear she felt that.

The meeting went well, until we reached the topic of salary. When I told her the number, she paused and said, “This is forty thousand less than what I made in San Francisco.”

And Pete said, without missing a beat, “That’s for the view.”

Susan laughed. And she stayed.

She didn’t spend all forty years of her remarkable career in Casper. But those years she gave us here were meaningful ones. They shaped her. And they shaped the way Wyoming came to know her voice, her steadiness, her fairness, and the humanity she carried into every story she told.

Her career as a journalist was long, respected, and admired. The mark she leaves is not just in the reporting she did, but in the integrity with which she lived the work.

One of Edward R. Murrow’s lines feels right today:

“To be persuasive, we must be believable. To be believable, we must be credible. To be credible, we must be truthful.”

That was Susan. Truthful. Credible. Believable. And deeply missed.

Rest well, Susan. Thank you for what you gave this place, and the people who were fortunate enough to work beside you.

-Bob Price