Sports had always played a big role in Mr. Enos's life. Playing football as UMass, he held the record for the longest kickoff return for about 30 years, his son said. He also wrote two books on Gloucester High School football, "100 Years of Fishermen Football'' and "Nate,'' which was about Nate Ross, a longtime Gloucester football coach.
John Enos; wrote the book on Gloucester sports; at 79
| | JOHN E. ENOS JR. |
John E. "Doc'' Enos Jr. was known around his hometown of Gloucester as the "lovable grouch,'' hard on the outside, soft on the inside, his friends and family said.
A 40-year veteran reporter for the Gloucester Daily Times, Mr. Enos scared new reporters with his intensity in the Gloucester High School press box that is named in his honor.
But back in the newsroom, he'd take them under his wing and do what he could to help them in their new profession, his former editors said.
"We had a person coming in to apply for sports editor, and we sent him off on a trial to cover a football game,'' said Peter Watson, a former editor of the Gloucester Daily Times and general manager of Essex County Newspapers.
"At the other end of the press box, there was a man with a flushed red face, pounding on a typewriter and yelling out the window at the coaches, calling them all idiots. The man said, 'Who is that?' And someone said, 'Oh that's Doc Enos. He's going to be a great help to you.' ''
Mr. Enos, a retired journalist and sports enthusiast, died of heart failure on Sept. 5 in Addison Gilbert Hospital in Gloucester. He was 79.
Born in Gloucester, Mr. Enos loved the city and felt no reason to leave, said his son, David, of Rockport. He graduated in 1949 from Gloucester High School, where he earned his nickname, taken from the Bugs Bunny catch phrase, "What's up, Doc.''
He served a stint in the Army and then, after earning a degree in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1958, Mr. Enos returned to his hometown.
"When I was a little kid, I asked him, 'Dad, why don't we ever go on vacation?' '' David Enos said. "And he said, 'Why would we go on vacation when people from all over come here for vacation?' ''
Mr. Enos spent a few years as the sports information director for the University of New Hampshire before he settled at the Daily Times in 1963.
Being a Gloucester native made Mr. Enos an asset at the newspaper, said City Councilor Paul McGeary, a former Times editor and a former editor at The Boston Globe.
"He knew everything about everybody,'' he said. "Gloucester's a town where everything has a back story. Doc always knew the back story.''
During his years at the Times, he reported on police and court matters and high school sports. While he made a reputation as a direct reporter with a love of simple, declarative sentences, he also knew to tread softly when it came to reporting high school sports, said Watson.
"In his career, he never wrote anything bad about a kid as far as sports goes,'' David Enos said. "If a shortstop made an error and it cost the team the championship, he wouldn't name the position so that people wouldn't know who it was. They were just kids; they weren't professionals -- that was his idea. And anybody that did anything good, he would try to work their name into the story.''
"Doc would call out coaches from the press box and anywhere else, but I never heard him talk about kids that way,'' Watson said.
Mr. Enos always had a fondness for children, his son said. After he married Joan Abrahamsen in 1958, he filled his life with his four children and his grandchildren.
"One thing he said to me one time was that he was really lucky because there was never really a time when he didn't have kids around,'' his son said. "My niece was born when I was 14, and his youngest grandchild is my daughter, who's 4. There have been babies in the house since he got married, really.''
His love of children got Mr. Enos involved in coaching youth hockey and umpiring Little League games, where his one rule was that everyone had to try.
"You had to swing when Doc was the umpire,'' McGeary said.
Sports had always played a big role in Mr. Enos's life. Playing football as UMass, he held the record for the longest kickoff return for about 30 years, his son said. He also wrote two books on Gloucester High School football, "100 Years of Fishermen Football'' and "Nate,'' which was about Nate Ross, a longtime Gloucester football coach.
Mr. Enos chronicled Gloucester and its football team for four decades, a feat that was acknowledged when the Gloucester High press box was renamed in his honor after his retirement.
Mr. Enos dedicated his life and career to the town of Gloucester, McGeary said.
"I'd see him well into his 70s, and he'd still be over at Good Harbor Beach, body surfing every day, running up and down the beach,'' he said. "He was of a certain type, and they just don't make them like that anymore.''
In addition to his son, Mr. Enos leaves three daughters, Mary-Alice Curcuru and Grace Lopes, both of Gloucester, and Ann Marie of Manteca, Calif.; a sister, Patricia Davison of Gloucester; and 17 grandchildren.
Services have been held
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