He had a nearly four-decade career in the region, winning awards and inspiring faithful readers with his writing, wit and humor

By Buffy Pollock, Rogue Valley Times

Mark Freeman, a longtime Southern Oregon reporter who spent nearly four decades covering the region’s environmental and outdoors news, will be remembered for his quick wit, unbridled sense of humor and unwavering dedication to his craft.

Freeman, a longtime Medford resident and former reporter for the Mail Tribune, died of cancer on Saturday, Dec. 21. He was 60.

After receiving the news just prior to Christmas, longtime colleagues, while at a loss for the words they’re often expected to weave together, remembered Freeman as a larger-than-life personality and devoted friend and family man.

He most recently was the author of the Rogue Valley Times’ weekly Fishing Report, a carryover from his 33 years at the Mail Tribune. Freeman grew up in Michigan and later attended and graduated from San Jose State University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1986. 

He spent the first two and half years of his journalism career covering courts and crime at the Coos Bay World on the Southern Oregon Coast before making the move to Medford.

Former longtime Mail Tribune Editor Bob Hunter recalled hiring Freeman in March 1989 after his stint in Coos Bay and watching him over a quarter-century as he “became one of the preeminent outdoor writers in the Pacific Northwest, and even the nation.”

“When I talked with readers, there were a few reporters whose names often came up, and Mark was definitely one of them,” Hunter said this week. “They knew that Mark not only wrote about the outdoors but lived it and loved it.”

Former Mail Tribune and Rogue Valley Times photographer Jamie Lusch remembered more than two decades and countless assignments with Freeman, from trailing fishing guides down the region’s waterways and ice fishing — usually with “40-mile-per-hour sideways winds” — to picking morels or wandering down trails after a story had been captured.

“We’d get what we needed to get the job done, and then put our notes down and spend the rest of the day fishing or mushroom hunting, just enjoying whatever adventure we were on,” Lusch said.

“He loved every bit of it. … When we had to shift from print world to video, to watch him go from Mark Freeman outdoor writer to Mark Freeman, guy on camera… he just took it all on in full stride. He just went for it, and he pulled it off.”

Lusch remembers the professional relationship and a friendship in which Freeman served as a sort of father figure in his life, noting, “When he found out my wife was pregnant, he got the whole newsroom together to get money together for diapers and whatever else we needed. … As (Lusch’s son) Liam grew up, trying to find childcare and juggle work and life, sometimes Liam joined us on assignments. … Mark embraced Liam in these assignments and developed this great relationship with him.”

A favorite story for Lusch and others interviewed was when Freeman reported on the final irrigation season of the 88-year-old Savage Rapids Dam. Planning to watch the river run free after dam removal in October 2009, Freeman — along with Lusch and Lusch’s wife — ended up riding Freeman’s 1991 Willie drift boat downriver amidst massive boulders, tree stumps and other debris.

Freeman’s wife, former Mail Tribune Editor Cathy Noah, recalled Freeman had hoped to interview whoever made the first trek, not that he planned to be the one who made it. She noted, “He didn’t tell me about it until after he was through it!”

Freeman documented the historic day on social media on Oct. 9, 2009: “Did it. First and only boat to run Savage Rapids today. Went to cover history, ended up making it myself. Gotta say, pretty damn hairy. Big boulders rolling downstream, banks sloughing. Video to come.”

In his latter years at the Mail Tribune, Freeman served as producer and host of the “Oregon Outdoors” program at KTVL-TV, appearing on camera to talk about everything from ice fishing and mushroom hunting to clamming, fishing for summer steelhead or hunting for Bigfoot.

On Freeman’s final day at the Mail Tribune, when it closed Jan. 13, 2023, colleagues offered to help box up the piles that had accrued on his desk, which he often quipped had been deemed an OSHA hazard. He declared he wouldn’t clean the desk or bid farewell, asking a small group of colleagues, “How do you say goodbye to the best job you ever had?”

Not saying goodbye, and not without a byline for long, Freeman authored the Times’ Fishing Report, published every Wednesday after the paper launched in February 2023.

Rogue Valley Times Editor Troy Heie began working alongside Freeman at the Mail Tribune starting in 2003. He called Freeman’s death “a huge loss for our community.”

“Mark was a special colleague and a great friend to many of us at RVT. His weekly fishing column was read widely online and in our print edition, and that merely scratched the surface of his overall talent that was evident throughout his long and exemplary career in the Rogue Valley,” Heie said.

“We will miss his wit and humor, his dogged tenacity, and his dedication to the craft of reporting and writing.”

Rogue Valley Times Sports Editor Kris Henry recalled decades of friendship after meeting Freeman when Henry began at the Mail Tribune in 1998. Henry and others interviewed teased that most of their stories about Freeman “probably couldn’t be printed.” 

Henry recalled years of commiserating while covering the region’s news, raising children and navigating life.

“Mark was entirely his own person and just a character who was fun to be around because he would say exactly what he felt and what was on his mind … but he also had just a pure joy about himself when he was interacting with anyone that he came across.

“It’s easy to get wrapped up in Mark and what he meant to the outdoors, and how much he loved fishing and bringing that to Southern Oregon readers, but the root of it was Mark was just a goodhearted person,” Henry said.

“Mark was just a guy who was happy to see you and happy to tell you a new story of what was going on in his life or the lives of his kids. He was just so proud of both kids and just could not wait to really share the newest story and kind of bring you in to the family,” Henry said.

“If you knew Mark, you were prepared for just about anything. … If it popped into his mind, it was gonna come out of his mouth. And he was unapologetic for it.”

Founding Rogue Valley Times Editor David Smigelski shared an excerpt from Freeman’s final Fishing Report, published online and in print Dec. 4, noting it reflected “classic Freeman humor.” The line read, “Thursday’s forecast calls for 10-knot winds and 8-foot seas. Trust me, you can tell the difference between 7- and 8-foot seas. Just ask the guy watching his breakfast float away.”

Former Mail Tribune reporter Jonel Aleccia reflected on the loss this week: “What comes to mind about Mark is that he was clear-eyed and unflinching about everything: His work, his river, his family, his friends. He sized it all up, decided what was good and what wasn’t and went from there.

“Whether the situation was great tragedy or great joy or something else, he always concluded: It is what it is.”

Noah said she had been comforted by the countless stories about her partner of 22 years. Despite his reporting skills and trademark humor standing out most to those who followed Freeman’s byline, Noah said it was a softer side that usually showed to those he cared for most. 

“Most people kind of looked at him at this rough, outdoors guy, but he was really very sentimental and romantic and just had a lot of love for his family and his sons, especially. … I felt really lucky to be a part of his life all those years,” she said.

Noah said a group of friends reminiscing about Freeman this week recalled him teasing about his renowned smoke salmon recipe.

“He would say, ‘My smoked salmon gets me invited to the parties that my mouth gets me kicked out of.’” Noah said, noting that a friend summed up her husband’s lesser-known side, “His wit, while not always family-friendly, was never mean-spirited. And while you might understandably think of him as gruff, his heart was as big as the whole outdoors he wrote about.”

Freeman was an award-winning writer over his entire career and worked closely with the Outdoors Writers Association of America, serving in various leadership roles throughout the years. 

A celebration of life will be held this spring. Noah said some of Freeman’s ashes would be scattered into his beloved Rogue River.

Reach reporter Buffy Pollock at 458-488-2029 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @orwritergal. This story first appeared in the Rogue Valley Times.