SALEM — A former longtime news editor of The Salem News and Salem resident Helen (Auchterlonie) Gifford died Wednesday, May 21, at Care Dimensions Kaplan Family Hospice House in Danvers.
She was 77.
Those who worked for her and those who were subjects of her editorials or stories described her as tough and fair: A consummate journalist of integrity. She believed in the power of local journalism.
“Helen was the heart and soul of The Salem News for more than two decades,” said Tom Dalton, a Salem News reporter who worked with Gifford from 1996 until he retired in 2014. “She was one of the most moral and principled people I have ever known, and her passion for accuracy and fairness was felt by every reporter on her staff.”
While she may not have been as visible to the public as other Salem News journalists such as the late Nelson Benton, her influence as a newspaper editor reached far beyond the Witch City as she mentored countless young journalists in the craft now working across the country.
She worked in the paper’s newsroom when the newspaper’s offices were on Washington Street and then on Derby Square for a time, and later until her retirement in 2019 in the newsroom on Dunham Road in Beverly where The Salem News had consolidated its office space.
“Helen had a special way with young reporters,” former Salem News Editor David Olson said. “She was a mentor, and a protector and their greatest advocate. There are outstanding reporters working in newsrooms around the country thanks to her.”
Salem State University President John Keenan, a former Salem state representative, said of Gifford, who graduated from Salem State College in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in English: “Regardless of the issue, I always enjoyed meeting with Helen, as you knew she had done her homework and that she was going to be fair — even if hard-hitting — in her editorial. The respect and high praise she is receiving as we remember her are well deserved.”
Early controversy
At 21, Helen Auchterlonie was news editor of the Salem State College Log when she was featured in a New York Times story in 1969 called “Campus newspaper editors are now expressing bold views.”
She is pictured sitting in what was described as a “small cluttered office” of the Log at a meeting of six Massachusetts’ state college student editors of campus papers as they decided, as an act of defiance over the issue of press censorship, to print an article by the Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver.
They did so, the Times article said, after the Fitchburg State College president and the printer canceled an issue of its student newspaper, the Cycle, because the article was considered obscene. The decision to print the article in Salem and elsewhere created turmoil on the six campuses, the article said, and the Salem paper was shut down for a time.
In a 2018 edition of the Salem State University Viking Voices Podcast, Gifford described how when the college’s then president, Fred Meier, refused to allow the publication of the article, the staff collected private donations, and found a printer in Boston who would print it independently.
“It was a wild ride, I have to tell you. I have never been involved in anything this crazy,” she told the podcast, about how it created press attention. The paper’s advisor urged her to call the Boston Globe when the college president would escalate the situation.
“This also showed me how the media can help shape things and bring things to public attention,” Gifford said.
Working relationships
Salem City Councilor at-Large Conrad Prosniewski worked as the Salem Police Department’s public information officer for 25 years spanning Gifford’s time at the paper.
He came up through the ranks with Peter Gifford, the brother of her husband, Tom.
“She was firm but understanding,” Prosniewski said. “A great listener.” He said Gifford was both firm and fair in her reporting, describing her as someone with great integrity.
“She was a true reporter,” he said.
“She had integrity and when you said something and she printed it,” you couldn’t complain, said former 25-year Salem police Chief Bob St. Pierre who retired in 2009. Gifford was someone you could trust, he said.
“She’s a straight shooter, she really was,” St. Pierre said.
‘Outstanding community editor’
Karen Andreas, the former top editor of The Salem News, worked with Gifford for decades.
“Helen was an outstanding community editor — completely dedicated to providing the very best local news that was fair, accurate and relevant,” Andreas said. “She mentored so many great reporters — Tom Dalton, Ben Casselman, Alan Burke, Paul Leighton, and many others — and had great impact on their careers. She was also a wonderful person who truly cared about those that she worked with.”
Casselman, a former Salem News reporter for three years and now chief economics correspondent at the New York Times, described Gifford as his “first real editor,” saying there are reporters all over the country mentored by her.
In an appreciation Casselman wrote for Gifford’s retirement in 2019, he spoke about the time Gifford defended him as an intern when a local businesswoman called Gifford angry about an implication in a story. After listening to the caller, and defending his story, she sent Casselman over to talk with the caller.
“I learned that a good editor takes complaints seriously, and that she tries to find a solution,” he said.
“She guided me through my first investigation and my first big profile and my first mayoral campaign,” Casselman said. “Through it all she was the same steady hand — asking the question I’d hoped she wouldn’t ask, holding me accountable for my mistakes, pushing me to do better next time.”
Former Salem News reporter Paul Leighton, who worked with Gifford since 1997, said: “The word I associate with Helen is integrity. She held the newsroom to the highest standards of fairness and accuracy. She was behind the scenes to the public, but those of us who worked with her know she was the most important person at The Salem News.
“Helen was devoted to Salem and to the newspaper,” said former Salem News courts reporter Julie Manganis, now a reporter at Law360. “In our old offices downtown, her office was filled with books on the city’s history. She truly loved her adopted hometown. “
“As an editor, she was one of the finest I have ever worked for,” Manganis said. “She once told me her guiding principle was like a doctor’s: ‘first, do no harm.’ Instead, she worked to make every story sing, whether it was a brief or a multi-part series. It was really a privilege to work for her for so long.”
‘Embodiment of old-school newsroom’
Salem was indeed her adopted hometown. She grew up in Andover and graduated from Andover High, said her daughter, Amy Gifford. She attended Salem State College where she met her husband and moved to Salem where they raised a family.
Former Salem News reporter Dustin Luca, who worked with Gifford from 2014 to 2024, said when he was a “cub reporter,” she would take time to go over his stories line-by-line to hone his skills.
“To me, Helen Gifford was the embodiment of the old-school newsroom — sharp, passionate, and absolutely unforgettable. She brought an energy to community journalism and its editorial process that is tough to replicate,” said Luca, now associate director of external communications at Salem State University.
“She was amazing,” daughter Amy Gifford said. Her mother was strong, smart, intelligent and principled, she said.
“She was full of love and she really just surrounded herself with the people she loved, and that was her family, her grandchildren, her children, but also her friends,” Amy Gifford said.
Gifford started her career after college as a reporter at the weekly Swampscott Reporter. She later became editor at North Shore Sunday, then became news editor and managing editor at the Salem News starting in 1994. She also served on the board at Brookhouse Home, a residence for women in Salem.
She also continued to write stories of interest to her. On May 25, 2011, Gifford wrote a story called “The Last Dance,” about the closing of the Gene Murray School of Dance on the Essex Street pedestrian mall.
“Murray, 72 , is closing his School of Dance, after teaching thousands of local children and adults the art of ballet, the joys of tap and the intricacies of ballroom dancing — all, of course, while minding their manners,” Gifford wrote.
Helen Gifford is survived by Tom, her husband of 54 years, daughters Amy Gifford and Sally Gifford, son Jamie and three grandchildren, Mary Gifford-Bartlett, 13, David Gifford Bartlett, 11, and Liara Gifford, 2.