90 Years Old, and Breaking Science News With Verve

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It would be hard to find an older newspaper reporter than David Perlman, the 90-year-old science writer for The San Francisco Chronicle.

It would also be hard to find a more youthful one.

Mr. Perlman’s 78-year newspaper career began at age 12 when he started his junior high school paper with a mimeograph machine. His tenure at The Chronicle began in 1940 when was hired as a copy boy. He still works full-time in his cubicle in the corner of the paper’s city room.

Yes, he has the obligatory old-school accouterments: a dog-eared Rolodex, a speedy two-fingered typing technique, and the boast that he has never bought a home computer. But to see him running out on stories in his 1993 Honda, or knocking around the newsroom, it is clear that Mr. Perlman’s health is fine — it is the health of the Chronicle that now threatens his career.

To avoid folding, the struggling paper is trimming its staff by offering buyouts. Mr. Perlman refuses to take one.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/business/media/27chronicle.html?th&emc=th