Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 14, 1993 TAG: 9312140283
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MELANIE S. HATTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
He leaned back in a chair in the lunchroom at WDBJ-TV (Channel 7) in Roanoke, munched on a blueberry doughnut and recounted why, after 13 years, he is still anchoring the 6 o'clock newscast.
Years ago, he was a hard-charging newsman, full of ambition. Now he says he has loosened up. And he could be here to stay.
It helps that he's the 6 p.m. point-man, the one who keeps the show on course and gives it credibility, says Jim Shaver, vice president of news and programming.
It also has helped that he has married in recent years and now has two sons.
"I'm still very interested in what I do and driven" to it, Humphry says, but his family has given him a new perspective.
Humphry describes himself as an introverted, introspective, quiet person. He admits he is uncomfortable with his television persona. On the air, his\ expression is at times almost smug, occasionally stern and usually serious.
"My basic character is down and low-key and not as friendly as I'd like. I try to project a more animated and joyful" personality.
That unemotional image, Shaver said, is the reporter in Humphry showing through. ``It's the same thing Dan Rather struggles with every day. People want the news delivered in a straightforward manner.''
``He probably needs to do more to liven himself up,'' said Allison Gibson, Humphry's producer. But considering that Humphry does the broadcast at the end of his day - one that may have involved sitting through a complicated court trial - it's not surprising that sometimes he's just not lively.
``You need a great amount of energy to anchor,'' she said.
"The camera is very unforgiving,'' Humphry said one recent weekday at 5:45 p.m., as he sponged makeup on his face. "With the amount of sleep I've been getting lately I look like something on the way in to Oakey's.
``And as it turns out, I look like something going out of Oakey's" once the make-up is complete.
``He's a people person,'' said chief photographer Neil Dudley. ``A lot of people don't know that because he's on TV. He cares about people, and it may not show through."
Dudley said Humphry takes time to talk to people who recognize him when he's out doing a story, even if he doesn't have much time to spare.
Getting recognized comes with the job. "I'm enough of a ham to handle it," Humphry said. "Anyone who claims not to have a slightly inflated ego" in this business isn't telling the whole truth.
A man in Kroger recently asked him where he buys his ties. Humphry's answer: anywhere there's a sale on. Though occasionally, you'll spot him\ wearing his Gordon tartan tie - the one with the green plaid.
Humphry, 44, grew up in Springfield, Mass., hometown of 6th District Rep. Bob Goodlatte and Doug Harwood, publisher of the Rockbridge Advocate.
In fact, the three attended the Christian Science Sunday school class together. Their friendships have faded over the years, and Humphry has since left the Christian Science Church because, he says, he disagreed with some of its beliefs. Today, he regrets there's a "spiritual void" in his life and has yet to find a replacement.
He attended the College of Wooster in Ohio, but it wasn't until his two-year service in the Army that he decided to pursue broadcasting as a career. He was drafted in 1971 and ended up working in the public relations office in Hampton. His civilian boss encouraged him to study journalism at the American University in Washington, D.C.
Humphry was anchor and news director at a public-television station in Wilmington, Del., before moving to Roanoke. Jim Shaver met Humphry at a convention at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Nev., and later offered him a job. Shaver wanted Humphry as WDBJ bureau chief in Lynchburg, but Humphry preferred starting as weekend anchor. Shortly thereafter, he replaced Jim Kent - now news director - as weekday anchor.
Humphry admits his public image was abrasive: "I was hard to get along with." He came to Roanoke ready to "set the world on fire." He was in between marriages and a self-described workaholic.
But over the years, "my tether has shortened. I used to push it to the limit and get in trouble." Today, he says, he's less likely to be confrontational. Ambushing someone with the camera is sometimes the only way to get a story, but, "I guess I don't relish it as much as I used to."
Now, "my greatest fear is over-simplifying [a story] . . . . I'm always left with an enormous frustration at what's left out."
His most gratifying stories are not the big murder trials but the ones that touch people. The cool reporter acknowledges that some stories emotionally affect him. He was moved by one of his recent stories about the alleged classroom abuse of youngsters by a Botetourt County schoolteacher. "I had a personal, almost physical, reaction to that story," he says. "I'd defy anybody to sit there and be unmoved by that story."
Another one that bothered him was the death of 9-year-old Dustin Washburn, who was killed by a high-speed driver on Peters Creek Road in June. Humphry thought about his own children.
The man charged was John Walton Stover, 20.
"I wanted to get into his face," Humphry says. "It was going to be like getting face-to-face with the devil." But then in court he saw Stover, a handsome young man who arrived with his parents and was worried about the consequences. Humphry says he realized then that just as Dustin could have been his son, Stover, who pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, also could have been his son. ``I probably wouldn't have had the same perspective without a family."
Having that family has been ``humanizing,'' he says.
His son Lincoln - named after the 16th president, a personal hero of Humphry's - is 3 1/2, and Pierce is 9 months old. "I always wanted children, and now I know why," Humphry says. "Now I've found there is another life outside TV."
He remarried in 1988. His wedding was "the greatest personal day of my life," he says.
Elizabeth Broyles had worked at WDBJ in promotions, but they didn't talk much until they met at a party. They dated for five years.
When she gave up her job at the station and headed to Virginia Tech to study horticulture, he decided it was time to propose.
Their wedding was set in a place called the Wedding Rock on Elizabeth's parents' home in Craig County. Humphry walked to the site escorted by a Scottish band, and Elizabeth rode in on a white horse. "It was a perfect 72 degree day with maybe two clouds,'' he says.
They had wanted to do something different. They're an outdoorsy couple, Elizabeth Humphry says, so they added a rustic, elegant theme to the day.
Humphry decided not to wear the traditional Scottish kilt of his ancestry (he owns two), but instead, wore a rented tuxedo.
He loves his heritage. His great-grandfather came to America from Scotland. Humphry has visited the country five times, including one motorcycle trip he took with his brother. He wants to return when his sons are old enough to appreciate it.
Humphry has thought about teaching or moving to another television station. In fact, he once accepted a job at an ABC affiliate in Orlando, Fla., but "Shaver talked me out of it." He's turned down so many offers that he rarely gets them anymore.
So is this it for Humphry?
"Probably," he says.
Keywords:
PROFILE
by CNB