Everyone knows it takes a whole team to run a newspaper but, for many of us, Vince Federoff has been the face of the Whitehorse Star for as long as we can remember.

Hardly a public event has taken place in this town without Vince being there to snap a photo. Be it for sports, arts, community, politics ... somehow we know it’s the “Place To Be” if Vince is there taking pictures.

Vince came to the Yukon in 1964. His father traded his hotel in Hope, B.C. for the Penguin Hotel in Dawson City (where the Midnight Sun Hotel stands now). They only stayed in Dawson for a summer then realized it was going to cost them too much to keep the hotel running, so they closed the doors and walked away.

“We had met Clyde Wann on the way up to the Yukon, because the car broke down at Morley River Lodge. We got to know Clyde, and Dad was an entrepreneur, so after Dawson we went to Swift River, running the Swift River Lodge. We then came to Whitehorse. And this is where I grew up, from Grade 3 on,” said Vince.

And how did he get started in the newspaper business?

“I left school two months into Grade 11. My friends were all going to learn how to operate heavy equipment and make big bucks. I was thinking about that but I never managed to pull it off,” said Vince.

So in 1973, he walked into the The Whitehorse Star Christmas party, a 17-year-old kid. Bob Erlam (the owner) and Jackie Pierce (advertising manager) told him to come back after the New Year. That was his job interview. “Bob’s son Paul was running the press and took me under his wing and I learned how to operate presses. I started sweeping floors and putting rolls (of paper) on the press, and doing the grunt work. I was a young grunt,” said Vince.

After many years, he was offered the dark room position. “The dark room position at that time was ‘B.C.’ — before computers. Then eventually, with computers coming in, there was less and less for the dark room to do, so they made me a photographer. I’m wondering if I’m the first ever actual photographer for the Whitehorse Star?” said Vince.

Vince’s schooling in photography has been provided by all the magazines he could find in Mac’s and all the books he could buy to study photography.

“I went to Vince’s school of photography. I did a lot of reading, a lot of research, a lot of messing around with photos to try and learn how to do photography. So I’m not formally trained. Maybe it’s in my blood, because my grandfather was a photographer in the old country,” said Vince. Which old country? “My mother claims to be born in Russia, but she didn’t speak Russian, she spoke German. Somewhere over there, probably part of the USSR at the time,” said Vince.

Some of Vince’s favourite memories are of back in the heyday when there were upwards of 30 people on staff. “After the papers were out we’d sit around the dining room. We’d play some board games. Almost the whole bloody staff would be doing it. We had a huge staff too, a lot of people. 27 to 30 people,” said Vince.

Bob Erlam, the owner of the Star at the time, was full of surprises. “He used to make dog sleds out of hockey sticks. I used to come into the press room in the morning and Bob would have his dog sled runners bending in my press. How do you tell him, ‘boss, I need my press?’ ” said Vince.

The Star also operated a commercial print shop back then. When they sold the print shop (which then became Arctic Star Printing) they actually sold Vince with the business. “That was a bad time. I wasn’t happy about that,” he said. “It just happened that I went along with the business. But I was unsatisfied and eventually made my way back to the Star.”

That’s when Vince started working with Rick VanSickle. “He was the best assignment editor I ever had,” said Vince. “He would line things up and all I had to do was go and take a picture. Rick did all the legwork, really. After Rick left the Star, he moved to Toronto and worked as an editor at the Toronto Sun.

He’s coming back to help out with the last days of the paper. He’s a long time Star person, long time newspaper person, so he’s coming back to help out in the end. It’s pretty historic — a 124-year-old newspaper dying, right? It’s sad.”

And what is Vince going to do next?

“Well, Max Fraser is still trying to put something together. I’m big on that, really. Just as a matter of news continuity. And the community needs it. I really appreciate my community. And I think it’s important that the community has a good news source. I wish Max all the best because he has good ideas there,” said Vince. “But what do I really want to do? I also have a potential opportunity to sling beer at the 98. I would LOVE to do that. I’ve wanted to do that for years actually. I’d really like to do it part-time, because the last 24 years of pressure has been relentless. What’s tomorrow’s front page picture, you know? The pressure is always there. ALWAYS there. So it’s very challenging. As much fun as it is, sometimes I’m just so tired.”

Vince reminisces about the time before social media. “I mean, way back when, we were the social medium. People would always call me up: Come take a picture of this big icicle on my building. I have a big sunflower in my yard. They don’t do that anymore. They don’t tell me all the things. They just post them,” said Vince. “I love that newspaper. I’ve been there a long time. There’s been ups and downs but it’s always a lot of fun.”

Note: Clair Ness is a songwriter, singer, entertainer and artistic director for the Yukon Circus Society.

By CLAIR NESS