About Joel Thurtell
Meet Joel
Joel Thurtell was a reporter at the Detroit Free Press for 23 years before retiring in 2007 to start this blog. At the Free Press, he wrote every kind of report, from obituaries to magazine stories, investigative projects to one-time sports stories. In his last few years at the Free Press, he specialized in writing offbeat features, often taking part in the activities he later reported on. Glassblowing, fife playing (or rather, not playing), and dodgeball are examples of his participatory journalism.
Investigative Reporting and Feature Writing
At the Free Press, Thurtell reported on life for black students at the University of Michigan, uncovered a costly school finance scam, exposed nepotism and profiteering in a Western Wayne sewer project, detailed theft and incompetence at the Wayne County morgue, and revealed US Representative John Conyers’ use of congressional aides for campaign work and babysitting on federal time. His story about Conyers’ staffers taking charity Thanksgiving turkeys meant for the poor drew significant attention on the Free Press website.
Early Journalism Career
Thurtell began his career as a reporter for WMUK-FM, the NPR affiliate at Western Michigan University. He was a stringer (part-time correspondent) for the South Bend Tribune and editor of the Berrien Springs Journal Era before joining The Tribune full-time in 1981. He later became a reporter at the South Bend Tribune before joining the Free Press in 1984.
Education and Peace Corps Service
Thurtell earned a BA in history from Kalamazoo College and an MA in history from the University of Michigan. He began PhD studies in Latin American history at U of M but left academia to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa, where he supervised the construction of a school and well.
Environmental Reporting and the Rouge River
At the Free Press, Thurtell reported extensively on environmental issues and developed a strong interest in the Rouge River. In June 2005, he and Free Press photographer Patricia Beck paddled 27 miles along the Rouge, from Zug Island to Nine Mile Rd in Southfield, and their book, Up the Rouge!: Paddling Detroit’s Hidden River (A Painted Turtle Book) was published by Wayne State University Press in March 2009. It was named a 2010 Michigan Notable Book by the Library of Michigan. The Free Press Rouge project earned the 2006 Harry E. Schlenz Award from the Water Environment Foundation.
More About Joel
Early Exposure to Printing and Newspapers
As a teen, Thurtell managed a Grand Rapids Press paper route and worked as a printer’s helper at his hometown Lowell (Michigan) Ledger. That was the only journalism training he had. In 2007, Thurtell retired after working 30 years as a reporter with the South Bend Tribune and the Detroit Free Press.
A Reporter Shaped by Broad Experience
In his journalism textbook, Shoestring Reporter How I Got To be A Big City Reporter Without Going to J School and How You Can Do It Too, Thurtell wrote that the best reporters are those with a broad range of experiences. He has lived by that standard.
Before and during his working life, he has been a congressional aide, printer’s helper, grapevine trimmer, rural letter carrier, blueberry picker, foundry grinder, onion harvester, taxicab driver, Yellow Cab owner, rare-book repairer, and antique ham radio dealer. He also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa.
Shoestring Reporter and Independent Journalism
Shoestring Reporter How I Got To be A Big City Reporter Without Going to J School and How You Can Do It Too is a manual on how to become a journalist without formal training and hold onto your intellectual independence. The book reflects Thurtell’s own career path: learning journalism through practice, experience, persistence, and reporting.
Fiction, Satire, and the News Industry
Cross Purposes, Or, If Newspapers Had Covered the Crucifixion was published by Hardalee Press. The book examines hubris, arrogance, prejudice, greed, and ambition as driving forces in the news industry.
A Career Built Through Reporting
Thurtell learned the reporting craft by stringing for the South Bend Tribune, The Detroit News, The New York Times, Detroit Free Press, The Indianapolis Star, and The Grand Rapids Press. He was editor at The Journal Era (Berrien Springs) and later served as a staff writer for the South Bend Tribune and the Detroit Free Press. His articles have appeared in The Progressive, National Fisherman, and Planning Magazine. He has also written technical-historical essays about amateur radio for QST, CQ, and Electric Radio.
Thurtell wrote many essays for Lightning Flashes about restoring and sailing old wooden boats. Plug Nickel Shoestring Boat Restoration; How I Turned an Old Fiberglass Boat Mold into a Beautiful Wooden Sailboat, and What I Learned Along the Way is a collection of his wooden boat essays published by Hardalee Press.
Awards and Investigative Reporting
At The Journal Era, Thurtell’s report on a probate court’s bizarre release of a youth charged with rape won an Advancement of Justice Award from the State Bar of Michigan. After his release, the boy raped and strangled a teenage classmate. Thurtell also received an award from the Michigan NAACP for his 1985 Detroit Free Press report, “Being Black at U of M,” which examined racism at the University of Michigan.
Exposing School Bond Debt
Thurtell’s Detroit Free Press exposé of a “creative” bond scheme that piled huge debt on Michigan schools prompted the Legislature to ban that form of financing, known as capital appreciation bonds. The Michigan Education Association awarded him its School Bell Award.
In 2012, Thurtell repeated his bond exposé on his blog, this time focusing on super-high interest rates on school bonds in California. His blogging helped ignite coverage by California and national media and prompted the California Legislature to place limits on capital appreciation bonds.
Joel on the Road
Thurtell writes his blog from a spare bedroom in his Plymouth, MI, house. The Metro Times in Detroit named the blog the “best example of an independent blogger raising hell.”
Exploring Detroit’s Hidden Rouge River
In 2005, Thurtell and photographer Patricia Beck paddled, towed, lifted, and hauled a canoe 27 miles up the Rouge River in Detroit. Their reporting explored a heavily polluted, largely hidden, and often misunderstood river running through Detroit. Their two-part Detroit Free Press series won the Water Environment Federation’s 2006 Harry E. Schlenz Medal for Achievement in Public Education. Wayne State University Press later published Up the Rouge!: Paddling Detroit’s Hidden River (A Painted Turtle Book), featuring Beck’s photos and Thurtell’s text. The book was named a Library of Michigan Notable Book in 2010.
Other Books Published
Hardalee Press published Seydou’s Christmas Tree, the story of a young Muslim friend in Africa who taught Thurtell and his wife, Karen Fonde, an unforgettable lesson about Christmas. Hardalee Press also published Mouse Code, Thurtell’s book about how field mice used radio to combat developers.
Recognition and Teaching
In 2011, the journalism faculty of Wayne State University named Thurtell “Journalist of the Year.” Thurtell teaches investigative reporting at Wayne State University.
Historical Research and Current Work
Thurtell is working with databases from Mexican church records. His article, “Gender-Differentiated Tarascan Surnames in Michoacán,” was published in the April 2018 issue of the Journal of Interdisciplinary History. He is writing a book about his findings and the unique methodology he developed for detecting anomalous human behavior in quantifiable historical records. Thurtell also recently finished a novel based on his experience as a 17-year-old placed in a German household headed by a diehard Nazi.