Mike ‘Buck’ Tharp, veteran war reporter and former Merced Sun-Star editor, dies at 77

Longtime journalist and former Merced Sun-Star executive editor Mike “Buck” Tharp died after a two-year fight against cancer, according to family.

He died on Jan. 6 at age 77.

Tharp had a long a decorated career as a journalist, including many stints as an overseas war correspondent in places like Somalia, Bosnia, Iraq, Kosovo and South Korea. Each trip he packed the same olive-drab duffel bag.

He made two trips to Iraq in 2008 and 2009 for McClatchy Newspapers while working at the Sun-Star.

Mike Hedges covered three wars alongside his buddy “Buck,” who he knew for 30 years.

“In the places we were at you had to put trust in people,” said Hedges, who works now as an executive editor for AARP Publications. “I could trust that Buck would not get rattled. I had great confidence that he was the right guy to be next to in places like that.”

Tharp had a way of connecting with people on a human level while covering wars, whether it was visiting a refugee camp, talking with soldiers or covering the people who were living with the chaos around them.

“He had a really lyrical writing style, but he also had an ability to show empathy for the people he came across,” Hedges said. “I remember when we were in Bosnia, while the rest of us were focused on the conflict, he had a real interest in the kids who were (impacted) by the war in the area.

“He spent a lot of time with the kids and learned to communicate with them. It was his ability to be empathetic with people that added a real dimension to his writing.”

Tharp knew his second trip to Iraq in 2009 would be his last time covering a war.

“I‘m done,” he wrote in the Merced Sun-Star in 2009. “I’m not leaving my home in Merced except for vacation. No more will I walk to the sound of guns. This was my last war. I would not trade what I’ve learned and felt for gold or fame. Covering wars has let me make friends for life. War has shown me the face of evil — and the heart and soul of courage and loyalty and honor. But it’s over for me. Now it’s for memories and dreams. And for younger reporters.”

Kansas Jayhawks and Elvis

Tharp was also a basketball junkie who was part of an NAIA national championship team at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. He would talk basketball with anybody, especially if the particular topic were his beloved Kansas Jayhawks.

Tharp also loved everything Elvis. He even had a shrine to “The King” at his home in Merced.

Tharp had a variety of newsroom experiences during his career.

Before coming to the Merced Sun-Star in June 2007, he taught journalism for seven years at California State University, Fullerton. Tharp was West Coast correspondent for U.S. News & World Report in Los Angeles for 11 years before that and Tokyo bureau chief for the news magazine.

Tharp was a reporter and bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal in Dallas, Tokyo and San Francisco, a correspondent for the New York Times in Tokyo and bureau chief of the Far Eastern Economic Review in Tokyo.

‘What could make Merced better’

Tharp worked at the Sun-Star until April 2012.

“He didn’t just want to be an editor, he wanted to write and create,” said Tharp’s wife Jeralyn Nickel. “He was very interested in Merced agriculture. He wanted to know what could make Merced better. He was concerned about the place he lived.”

Nickel and Tharp were college sweethearts. They reunited later in life and were married for 11 years, living in Plano, Texas, where Tharp taught journalism and writing classes at community colleges after he’d left Merced.

During his time as editor at the Merced Sun-Star, Tharp oversaw a staff of young reporters he affectionately called his “feral dogs.”

Many who worked for Tharp as a “feral dog” at the Sun-Star subsequently moved on to bigger publications, including The Washington Post, San Diego Union Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, Las Vegas Journal-Review, Marketplace, The Modesto Bee and The Fresno Bee, among others.

“Mike had a big impact on my career,” said Yesenia Amaro, who worked at the Sun-Star for 18 months under Tharp and now works at The Fresno Bee. “He was a valuable mentor for me through the years, even after I left Merced.”

“He was a person I would go to for advice on whether it was a new job opportunity, discussing a story or talking about goals in my career,” Amaro added. “He was always there for me.”

When editing stories, Tharp would call his reporters into his office and go over possible changes to their stories. He would ask the reporters how they felt about the changes.

“He was a very talented writer and the way he edited our stories, he made it better even through he would say we did all the work,” Amaro said.

Tharp’s reporters weren’t just employees, they were family.

Amaro remembers calling in sick one day while working in Merced and Tharp sent another reporter to her place with a bag full of cold medicine and vitamins.

“He actually did that for me, too,” said former Merced Sun-Star reporter Corrine Benedict. “I didn’t have family in Merced. The paper was really my family. He cared about people in a way a lot of people don’t, he wasn’t afraid to get involved in your life. There just wasn’t a lot of people like him.”

Tharp was his reporters’ biggest cheerleader. Benedict says Tharp played a big role in her being selected to serve as a correspondent twice for McClatchy Newspapers in Iraq.

“It’s something I wanted to do but I didn’t think they would give the opportunity to someone from a little Merced paper,” she said. “I think he helped convince them. That changed the trajectory of my career.”

Benedict was a finalist for a Pultizer Prize in 2012 while working at the Virginian-Pilot for her stories on medical professionals seeking to save the lives of injured American soldiers at a combat hospital in Afghanistan.

“Mike was such an advocate for his reporters,” Benedict added. “He cared about all of us in a way I’ve never had another editor care about me. He was an old-school journalist to the core.”

Tharp kept tabs on his reporters after they left Merced.

“He would send me links for jobs,” Amaro said. “Some of the jobs I didn’t think I was qualified for, but he thought I was and would encourage me to apply. He pushed me to reach my full potential.”

Victor Patton, who worked under Tharp at the Sun-Star as a crime and courts reporter and city editor, now works as an enterprise editor for The Fresno Bee.

Patton acknowledges Tharp could come off as brash and abrasive to some, but he always backed his reporters and wasn’t afraid to hold leaders accountable.

“Once, when I was getting close to my deadline on a story, he yelled, ‘We’re not making pianos here, get that story done!’” Patton said, with a laugh.

“Mike was extremely loyal, very intelligent,” his wife said. “Most people liked him, but he had a hard side to him. Whatever he did, he did to the best of his abilities.”

Patton and Tharp became good friends, and they remained in contact for years after they had left the Sun-Star and moved on to other jobs.

Patton said he was able to talk to his old boss a week before he died. “I thanked him and said he was appreciated,” Patton said. “He leaves behind a legacy of journalistic excellence and reporters who have worked all over the globe.”

Tharp’s students also held a special place in his heart. According to Nickel, he kept in touch with some of his students from Cal State Fullerton almost 20 or 30 years later.

“I know everyone eventually transitions out of the adrenaline-filled war correspondent life,” Hedges said. “Sometimes people never find a reason for that same intensity in their life, but Mike found that working in Merced with his group of young reporters he called his ‘feral dogs’ and also teaching his students in California and Texas.”

Tharp is survived by his wife Jeralyn, his son Nao, daughter Dylan and five grandchildren.