I lost another one of my “unofficial advisors,” when Larry Anderson, of Frost, died last Sunday.

My unofficial advisors are a small group of people who give me some unsolicited advice from time to time. And by advice, I mean it is sometimes criticism, but criticism given in a very nice way. At least, usually.

Sometimes that information and/or advice is helpful. Sometimes it is not.

With Larry, it was different. His comments, advice and ideas were almost always very helpful. And, he was one of the few people I actually went to and sought some advice from once in a while. Sometimes I called him for some background information on a story I was doing.

He was, after all, as he often reminded me, a former newspaper guy. He worked for the Blue Earth newspaper, and the Fairmont one as well, a long time ago.

And as he was often reminding me, he is the one who created the idea of having an April Fool’s Day story in the Faribault County Register. And, that he was the person who wrote the very first one. I sarcastically thanked him for creating something that gave me fits every year, when I was trying to come up with a fake news story idea every March.

Larry confided in me a couple of times that if newspaper work had paid more, he would have stuck with it. Instead, he got involved in banking, politics, foundation and hospital boards and a whole lot more. But I think he never lost his love of newspapers, and like me, wanted them to survive and thrive.

Maybe I should give you a couple of examples of what I am talking about.

Larry called me one day to tell me that former congressman Arlen Erdahl had died. He said that if I was doing a story about it, he, Larry, had a lot of information and pictures I could use. That offer turned into a nice large story last year, complete with a recent photo of Larry with Arlen.

I learned that Larry had worked for Arlen when Arlen was Secretary of State, and a whole lot more things I did not know before.

On that Saturday morning, when the Register first hit the newsstands and was coming into folks’ mailboxes, Larry sent me a text message that said simply ‘nice job on the Arlen story.’

It was not the only Saturday morning text message I received from Larry Anderson. There have been a lot of them over the years. Most were a little boost, saying a story (or the whole issue) was pretty good. Some were a bit critical, but always in a constructive way.

The last one I got from him was on Sept. 8, a Sunday, suggesting a story idea for me to do. Even when he was at home, battling serious illness, he was thinking about story ideas. One time not so long ago, when he knew we did not have a third reporter, he even volunteered to write the story for me. But, he pointed out, he was stuck at home doing dialysis so he would have to do the interview by phone.

Once a news guy, always a news guy.

One time Larry called me and asked if I wanted to go with him to the Hormel Institute in Austin. I had to confess I did not know about the Hormel Institute, only the Spam Museum. I went, and we had a personal guided tour of the whole place by the director. Turns out Larry was on the board of directors of the institute. It was, indeed, a fascinating place, doing cancer research with scientists from around the world.

John Huisman was along on that trip. Larry and John were the best of friends, a fact that has been surprising to me. You see, Larry was a pretty conservative Republican, and John is a pretty liberal Democrat.

I always figured that the two had called a truce, and had agreed not to talk about politics when they were together. I quickly learned, however, that they did talk politics, a lot. However, they did it in a polite way, each one expressing their own views, and then looking for common ground on some of the important issues of the day. And at the end, they stayed the best of friends.

You know, I think that a whole lot of our elected officials in the State Legislature and the Nation’s Capitol could learn a thing or two from Larry and John.

Discussion of the issues, looking for common ground, and finding solutions to the problems we have. Wow! What a concept.

Anyway, I am sure Larry Anderson would have enjoyed this column about him, and I am pretty sure he would have sent me a text message on Saturday morning.

Maybe he would have said thanks for the nice words. And maybe he would have added an idea for a story I could write in the next week or two.

Once a news guy, always a news guy.