By GABE JORDAN

It was roughly 15 years ago when I was a young and eager intern with the Georgia Press Association. I had been asked to bring a staff of three fellow student-journalists to the association’s summer convention and demonstrate new computer software that has since become the industry standard in newspaper publishing.

My three buddies and I traveled from Statesboro down to Amelia Island and prepared to wow the older, established, and respected members of the state media with our new computerized tricks. That, and hit as many open bars as possible.

We were moderately successful with the first priority and wildly successful on the latter. In the meantime, I was wowed myself when I met an institution in Georgia journalism.

Bill Shipp wandered out of the bright coastal Georgia sun and into the air-conditioned chaos of the meeting room we had converted into a make-shift newspaper office. He might have been interested in the new technology on display, or he might have been on the hunt for an open bar himself.

Regardless, I immediately recognized him and started to get a little star-struck. No matter what you think of Bill Shipp’s writings, any journalism student who understands the power of the media holds Shipp in high regard.

Here’s why:

In the early 1950s, Shipp was himself a college journalist at the Red and Black, the University of Georgia’s student newspaper. Shipp authored a number of editorials supporting attempts to break the color barrier at the university, which angered then-Gov. Herman Talmadge and many of his segregationist cronies.

Talmadge, however, made a fatal error in his dealings with Shipp.

The error was dealing with Shipp at all. Instead of ignoring the opinings of a college kid in his early 20s, Talmadge and members of his gang attempted to intimidate and threaten Shipp and others writing at the Red and Black. Talmadge went so far as to enlist the aid of the Georgia General Assembly in rebuking Shipp and his fellow student journalists, efforts that resulted in Shipp and another student resigning from the newspaper and Shipp eventually leaving UGA altogether.

The efforts ultimately resulted in Shipp becoming a martyr for the cause of a free press.

Because Talmadge and his gang let their feathers get ruffled by a college journalist, they inadvertently made Shipp a media star. After Shipp served a stint in the U.S. Army, he returned to Georgia and set upon a blazing career that has resulted in, among other things, his twice-weekly column appearing in nearly 100 newspapers across the state and a sterling reputation as one of the top political commentators in the southeast.

We’ve been missing his commentary lately. While Shipp was serving in the Army in Germany all those years ago, he met the love of his life, Renate, who he recently lost after a lengthy battle with heart problems and ill health. Since that tragic loss Shipp has justifiably taken a leave of absence that will end around Aug. 8.

We’re pulling for you, Shipp, and we’ll be glad to have you back on our pages. Even though that sentiment probably has Talmadge spinning in his grave.