Remembering longtime Minnesota Capitol reporter Bill Salisbury who died at age 80

Longtime, legendary Minnesota political reporter Bill Salisbury died this week, just days after his 80th birthday.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press veteran was a key figure for decades in the State Capitol press corps, covering eight governors during his career and spending a stint on national politics for the paper. Salisbury’s first legislative session was in 1975 for the Rochester Post Bulletin. The Pioneer Press hired him two years later.

Despite initial reluctance amid prodding from his father, who ran the weekly paper in his hometown of Belgrade, Minn., Salisbury stuck with journalism for 50 years — even failing to stay away from the Capitol following his official retirement in 2015. He kept a big desk full of file folders of future stories in the Pioneer Press’ Capitol office.

In a 2008 interview with MPR News, Salisbury couldn’t pinpoint one particular favorite story.

“I’ve had the fortune of riding in the president’s limousine and doing an interview and flying around the world, traveling to Bosnia and visiting Minnesota National Guard troops with the governor, things like that,” Salisbury said. “But when I think of what the real highlights were for me, a large part of it was just talking to ordinary Minnesotans and telling their extraordinary stories. That’s always been, you know, the most satisfying part of the job to me.”

Dave Orrick, one of Salisbury’s former colleagues, called him a newsman from a different era.

“If you’re going to picture your archetypes, I think he was sort of the more well-mannered, gentlemanly newsman, newspaper reporter. Not a hard-drinking, hard-smoking, poorly dressed kind of guy, but rather a decently dressed and polite kind of reporter who always tried to play it straight in the in the best meaning of that term,” Orrick told MPR News on Tuesday.

Salisbury was unfailingly respectful of everyone — colleagues and competitors, politicians and staff. But that didn’t mean he gave elected officials or others a free pass. Orrick recalled what Salisbury would say when he met with journalism students.

“He would talk about interviewing and talk about how to carry yourself and everything. And he always had this line. He’d say, ‘You want to focus and be polite and attentive to whoever's talking — but whenever I’m interviewing a politician, I’m always asking myself, how is this guy lying to me?,’” Orrick said, with a laugh. “And so I think those were the two sides of Bill: In one sense, a civility and professionalism — but also, you know, that edge of journalism where you don’t trust people just because it comes out of their mouth.”

Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty called Salisbury a pro, “in the true sense of the word. He was fully committed to the mastery of his craft while being decent and fair along the way. As you know, he also enjoyed and deployed a wit and dry sense of humor.”

On Facebook, Sen. Amy Klobuchar wrote, “Bill Salisbury’s byline was synonymous with accuracy and integrity. By keeping the public informed, Bill made our democracy stronger. When he interviewed me, I always knew his story would be fair & informative. I respected him greatly and will miss him.”