Lewis Leaves for Love

By Gloria Penner

Love is stealing Press Club Board Secretary Russell Lewis away. The KPBS News Senior Editor served on the Board of Directors for two years and was with KPBS for six years. He leaves San Diego in late August to unite with his fiancÈe, in Naples, Florida.

According to Lewis, the year-long long distance relationship was getting increasingly more difficult with email a poor second best to being together. Melanie has been a free lance NPR radio reporter stationed in Birmingham, Alabama, who "specialized in the kind of stories you don't forget," said Russell. She recently accepted a feature writing job with the Naples Daily News.

For Lewis, moving to Southwest Florida from Southwest California isn't much of a culture shock since Naples is 45 minutes from where he grew up. He earned his bachelor's degree in journalism and communications at the University of Florida.

Before KPBS, where he reports on local government, the military, business and transportation, he was the statehouse bureau chief for Kansas Public Radio in Topeka, Kansas. He also is a photographer, pilot and bicyclist.

Russell admits it's hard for a journalist to leave when San Diego's news is filled with a corruption trial, mayoral race and pension debacle. But whether he'll continue his reporting career in Naples is in question. "Everything's on the table now, except Melanie."

Posted August 2005