It was not uncommon to get an e-mail from Rick Emanuel, sent to me as part of The Citizen's department head team, at either a ridiculously late or early hour. The message would outline his schedule for the coming day.

He wanted us to know when he was going to be in and out of the office and he always made it clear that he could be reached on his cell phone if we needed him.

The schedule might go something like this:

* 7 a.m. Auburn Memorial Hospital committee meeting;

* 10:30 a.m. United Way of Cayuga County meeting;

* 11:45 to 1 p.m. Auburn Rotary weekly luncheon;

* 2:30 p.m. Cayuga Community College Foundation meeting.

It wouldn't be unusual on those types of days for Rick to also attend some type of community function in the evening.

As a person who gets exhausted from a day with a couple of staff meetings, I always marveled at how he pulled it off. What was most remarkable on those types of days was that Rick always managed to put in his time in the office, still getting around the building to talk with staff and managers and still handling that day's typical unexpected work-related challenges. But a day like that summed up best what we're all going to miss about this man - his dedication to both his newspaper and his community.

If you haven't heard by now, Rick has taken over as publisher of the Glens Falls Post-Star after a decade running The Citizen. I was fortunate to be with him for nearly five of those years.

In my newspaper career, I've worked in various jobs for seven different publishers. I've been lucky in that I can say all of them were good leaders of their enterprises, but I can easily say that Rick was the best.

As involved as he was in community organizations, he was never inaccessible to us. He put in long hours in the office, but he was rarely confined to his office. He loved to have conversations with employees, and he was truly interested in what they were doing.

Until I came to The Citizen, I had always worked in reporting positions. I never considered going to any of the publishers at those papers with a question or concern, mainly because I figured they had bigger issues. But I know that employees at The Citizen always felt comfortable approaching Rick.

That kind of atmosphere is what makes for a strong company.

Let's be clear. He was not perfect, and he certainly did not back away from tough choices. But it was his open-minded, common-sense approach to this job that I'm going to miss the most.

Executive editor Jeremy Boyer's columns appear Tuesdays in

The Citizen and he can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 231 or jeremy.boyer@lee.net