He earned his paycheck telling stories with a camera, but John Emauel Coutlakis’ real passion was telling stories. Real ones, which made you think, made you mad and more often, made you cackle.

“Greek,” as some of us called him, could quote Aristotle and Plato, but half the time, in a rush to make deadlines he never missed, he couldn’t find Saluda. Before GPS and despite the most detailed directions to an assignment, his battered pickup would turn down the wrong mountain road, and he’d call the newsroom two-way radio in irritated desperation.

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