the kind of story really badly needed to make aware what hard labor a newspaper daily needed just to make a paper.In fact what readers are indebted to strength and perseverance to make a tradition ,let me say a literary tradition possible :the NYT.
your descriptive tale,a song of praise, makes me happy,just because part of my family were workers doing hard labor .The production was taken for granted,but what kind of men were doing the work,and what kind of work was only partly known by my family.,

Congratulations and Good Luck -

My dad ran a linotype in Chicago and your story brought back many
wonderful memories of when I got to go to work with him to "help-out".

Thank you and God Bless.

Beautiful story, photographs and man. I wish you health and happiness in your retirement...

Congratulations - nicest story in a long time! Best wishes.

Thank you for a great story! We need to be reminded of the simple value of a job well done.

Here in the city of Graz, very near to where I live, a printing house that was opened in year 1867. A man in another printing house of his own which doesn't print books like the one opened in 1867, knew that it was going to close and be cut up and sold off in pieces. He formed a group to save this printing house and encourage people like myself, who is a weaver and also a bookbinder who works completely by hand in both fields to join with him and make this old art form bloom once more. The city of Graz who should have a vested interest in keeping this piece of history intact and saving it from ruin has not given us funds, so we are partly supported by donations and a grant from the EU to keep it running. I know the passion that Howie Maresca has known working his entire life, and I know the loss he must feel personally in the entire printing process. We have passion in Graz for doing it the way it has always been done. Like weaving, there are so many threads of this art form which must be learned and perfected that it is only for the passionate and patient of our world. That breed is dying out but it is still alive and well in Graz. Mr. Maresca, I wish you all the best when you retire and that you will find the greatest fruits of your labor in the next years to come, and in good cheer and good health!

Thank you for your service! I left NYC almost 3 decades ago but I still read this paper every day--even if the news of this world turns my stomach more and more!

One of the missing bits of labor history is how quickly and aggressively the newspaper industry moved out of "Hot Type" and those pesky, unionized linotype operators to cold type, which could be done using non-union, mostly female typists.

Cin Cin for Howie!

Many of my ancestors worked on the shop floor of some the most important New York newspapers. My great-grandfather was the most recent He ran the composing room for the NY Post during the Dorothy Schiff ownership era. He always worked the lobster shifts. As a little boy, my father would often go with him to the Post to watch and learn from him and his team of master compositors. It inspired my father who learned printing from the ground up including setting type by hand and running a letterpress. Ultimately my father became a NYC-based publisher of illustrated art books, thus being the first person in a long line that made it off the shop floor.

I salute Howie and all those craftsmen that continue the long tradition of printing and distribution of the paper of record, The New York Times.

Congrats to Howie on a long and successful career.

Being in graphic design, I've seen quite a bit of change, even in my short time. When starting out in '90s, I knew people who were trained on traditional paste-up and layout, who didn't like the move to digital, and left the field completely.

Although more of my work is now Web-based, the print projects (even magazines) have become far more automated. Paper proofs are becoming more rare--many jobs are printed hundreds, if not thousands of miles away, with only online proofing. Oftentimes, the only time I see projects on paper is when the final product ships.

Will be interesting to see where things are headed.

A lovely story about a very good man.

Just to update the business about the printing trades a bit, electrotype plates were made to replicate the set type (and graphics) in a form that was compatible with rotary presses. Moreover, by making several electrotype plates the same set type could be printed on multiple presses. Making the plates required a fair amount of skill and knowledge, as Mr. Maresca's lengthy apprenticeship suggests.

Another interesting point of the story is that at 88 Mr. Maresca can still do a full day's work. Not everyone is as hale at such an age but it does indicate that one-size-fits-all retirement is uncalled for. Some can go on and there are benefits to doing so.

Way to go.
Congratulations!!

Grew up in Queens (near St. John's).

I am 68.

Been reading the NYTimes since 1954.

Thank you for making sure I had a paper to read every AM in the '50s and '60s.

I hope the Times is the last man standing but it still won't be as good a paper as used to be. The Times is declining the way all hereditary dynasties decline.

Good Luck!

God Speed!

Not to get too political but millions and millions of dedicated people like Mr. Maresca have lost their jobs as they have been shipped overseas. If there was a way to print a newspaper in China, his job would be gone too. Along with any criticism of China you might see in print.

You go Mr. Maresca!! What a great story of living a life and earning a living. I hope your retirement is as fruitful!

A little more technical detail would help this story. There were two main changes in newspaper printing taking place starting in the early 1970s

1) Switching from "hot" type made by molding melted lead on a Linotype machine, to "cold" type printed by a onto strips of photo paper and then pasted onto to a page mockup that was photographed to manufacture the printing plate itself.

The second is switching from letterpresses -- in which the plate's inked surface was raised, like a rubber stamp -- to offset presses, in which there are no raised surfaces, but the thin metal plate is chemically treated so that ink adheres to the desired places.

Both changes were well underway in the mid 1970's, when I edited my college paper, but according to the online history of the NY Times, their switch to cold type BEGAN in 1978 and to offset printing not until 1981. Chances are this late adoption reflects both the high capital costs of transitioning such a large operation, and the union opposition to labor-saving technology.

Enjoy your retirement like you've enjoyed your work, Mr. Maresca.

Apprenticeships - we could use those again. I'm tired of companies saying they don't have trained this, or trained that. Train them. Then you have them.

I add my congratulations to Mr. Marescal. I'm 85 and my father, his father and his brother were printers (linotype). As a 12 year old runaway Dad worked 60 hours a week for the local newspaper, and was proud to have the work. He spoke grammatical English, could out spell anybody at the newspaper and took great pride in his work. Glad you survived the war to work for a great newspaper.

This story carries sentiment by its history of the global changes that occurred in one man's life: technology, the war and its great generation, and racial integration. I love Howie Marseca's attitude to change and still valuing the human social bonds.

A wonderful career!

What makes the NYT real is the people behind. Mr. Maresca was an important link in history. He also illustrates that someone over 60 can continue to be productive and active. Thank you for bringing his history to light.

Some day sure, it will be all online, the newsprint and ink put away, but I believe we still need people like Mr. Maresca.

In 60 years it will be interesting to read the life stories of the people at that time who are retiring, and compare them to the life story of Mr. Maresca's and see if there are any similar comparisons to speak of. What, if any, will be the defining moments for them like WW2 and Hiroshima, as well as the gradual evolution of his trade into his obsolescence, was for Mr. Maresca? The time the new Starbuck's opened next to the one next door? Or maybe the time Apple announced it's newest and most improved iPhone, for the tenth time in as many months. It's all relative, I suppose.

Congratulations, Mr. Maresca.

That's a well-played innings Howie. Congratulations. And thanks Stephen Hiltner for the wonderful photo essay. My beginnings in journalism at New Zealand's Christchurch Press newspaper in 1955 took me nightly into the inky depths of the print shop, its rows of Linotypes with their locomotive rumble, and the unique aroma of ink and paper scraps burning in the Linos' reservoirs as type was recycled for recasting, all imprinting an indelible memory We were behind the times (sorry about the pun) and relied on stereotypes. Truly an incredible span of history. Today my iPhone gifts me the power to research, write, photograph, administer and deliver a finished work to the printer or direct to web readers. Tempting ... but I'm retired!

A wonderful and heartwarming story.

My dad was a New York Times linotype operator in the era of the typographric union "big 6. The union in its day was so powerful but finally negotiated its own end given the changing technology. At its height the printing industry in New York City employed many tens of thousands. By its end the few remaining typesetters spent their time sweeping the floors, victims of technological unemployment.
And all this was before the arrival of the computer.
New York City labor history.
Does anyone remember, especially at the Times?

Congratulations to Mr. Maresca! Like my father and millions of other hard-working Americans who have done and continue to do the behind--the- scenes work of America, Mr. Maresca deserves praise.

The real nobility of man is in showing up each day and maintaining the focus and perseverance required in inglorious tasks.

The art of the deal is not the REAL deal.