After forty-two years with the North Jersey Media Group, Dick Benfield retired in April

Masthead, The, Autumn, 2006

After forty-two years with the North Jersey Media Group, Dick Benfield retired in April.

The April 23 headline in The Record in Hackensack, New Jersey, announcing Dick's retirement read: "The toughest man in journalism. After 42 years, The Record's Dick Benfield is retiring."

That reputation, according to a column by editor Frank Scandale announcing Benfield's retirement, was well demonstrated during a meeting with former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey:

"[T]he next thing you know, the governor was up on his feet, leaning across the table into Benfield's personal airspace and slamming the table like a butcher trying to pound a pork chop into submission.

"Eyeballs popped. Stunned silence.

"Anything could have happened next. Nobody would have blamed Benfield if he had exploded out of his seat and ripped into the governor nose to nose, while large beefy state troopers performed Master Yogi moves on the wiry editorial page editor. Instead, Benfield stared right at the foaming governor and continued his questioning, hardly missing a beat."

Scandale's column concluded:

"He also leaves here knowing his new gleaming road bicycle that he had built in some secret cave by a Michelangelo of titanium craftsmanship will satisfy one of his other loves in life--bike riding. This new chariot will propel him over mountains where he feels alive and at peace with the world. And maybe in the quiet of his ride he can say what he really wanted to a governor who tried to bully the toughest man in journalism that day.

"Good luck, Dick."