Vote on your nominees for St. Louis-area person of the year
Just to be clear, this is an informal survey of the opinions of people who read the Talk of the Day blog. We aren’t really naming an official “person of the year.” We have no magazine to adorn with the person’s face, we have no valuable sculpture to award to the person at a $500-a-plate dinner.
We’re just talking about newsmakers here as we muse over the ending of the 2008 year.
So, as I mentioned in an earlier Talk of the Day item, one of you suggested that we talk about the St. Louis-area person of the year. I said we’d use the criteria that Time magazine uses for its annual end-of-year annointment: “The person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year.”
In the earlier TOTD item, you all nominated who you thought would be good choices. Today, we offer a poll for you to vote among those nominees. I listed the nominations in the order in which they appear in the last TOTD topic. I excluded people I thought were way too obscure to capture a general audience. I excluded people who, well, weren’t people (sorry, Uno). I excluded myself; I’m not sure my kids would even name me person of the year.
So, off you go. Time to vote.
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Kurt is the director of social media for the Post-Dispatch, where he has worked since August 2002. He's been a journalist since 1982, covering municipal government, courts, education and two hurricanes as a reporter before becoming an editor. 
Hats off to a fallen firefighter, whho died in the line of duty. May God bless and keep his family
I enjoyed getting to know Ryan inside and outside of work. Having the pleasure to have worked with Ryan, I find it terrible and a total disgrace to see his name next to the killers and crooks that I see here regardless of the rules. You might as well have added Mark Knobbe to the list.
Kurt, do you realize what kind of impact this may have on somebody who is related or close to Ryan Hummert and Mike Swoboda?
I see nothing wrong with saving dogs and cats on the street but shortly before Ryan was killed he had a clinical save which means he saved a human life. This is something that HE did and we still do on a daily basis. We don’t do this for the cover story of a magazine or to get some worthless recognition on this blog, we do it because we love it. So in my opinion you can take his name from this list because the people that appreciate what he gave his life for already knows he is the Person of the Year.
Randy Grim is a perfect choice. He has dedicated his time and efforts to such a worthwhile cause to save stray animals and find them loving homes.
Randy Grim deserves this award because he makes a difference for St.Louis every day. He not only helps/rescues dogs, he has increased awareness of street dogs/abused dogs in St.Louis–he truly is a hometown hero. Not only that, he is a humble person who is doing it for the dogs, not his own glory.
Thanks Rachelle. Dog’s are great and all but Ryan Hummert is a hero and I think more people need to know his story. RIP Ryan.
Kurt,
Regarding Cookie, I did read; “The person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year.”
Regardless it’s asinine you put the name on the list without putting all of the Kirkwood officials that were murdered. You have no idea how those killed “embodied what was important about the year” to those they served, their family and friends. I personally would have voted for Tom Ballman or Bill Biggs.
If it were EQUAL I could understand your point. But its not. No wonder nobody reads this liberal rag of a paper.
Dan Retzlaff
Kirkwood, MO
I feel very strongly that Randy Grim from Stray Rescue deserves this award. He is so brave and faces alot of dangers doing what he does. He cares so much for all the animals, especially the homeless ones. What a man to give his time and energy to a never ending battle, all because WE that are called HUMANS allow these poor animals to be left to starve and die. They are helpless and I do not like to use the term animal when talking about them. There are alot of HUMAN ANIMALS out there that treat children the same way, abusers, molesters. They are the ones that deserve to be left to starv and die. Boy what a tangent I got on!! Anyway this wonderful man deserves this award as he is an angel from God.
I think its clear that there is only one person on this list that deserves to be person of the year. I think the Firefighter and EMS professionals will also speak for him. RIP Ryan!
To Eileen~ Gary? Really? What a joke. You are probably the head dispatcher as her name is also Eileen. The only reason you still have your job is.. Well I will keep it civil. You sure as hell can’t run the 911 center in Franklin Co. worth a Darn.
No one deserves this honor more than Randy Grim who devotes his entire being to helping the totally helpless. What he does for stray animals along with his quiet sensitive self makes him a very special person indeed.
How about Ryan Hummert? This individual is gunned down by a nut job on Ryan’s first run as a firefighter!