In the spring of 1967, Michael O’Connor created a special section for the Northern Star that he knew exceeded press capacity.

“There were five or six of us who hand-inserted those, all 18,000,” the Kankakee native said. “I was the only one who had experience as a newspaper carrier, and with inserting. I swear I did 8,000 to 10,000 of those things.”

Similar early lessons about production served O’Connor well when he bounded from the newsroom to the pressroom for the second half of his career, which included a dozen years with Gannett.

His jump came in 1984 as special projects director for the Decatur Herald & Review.

“We basically had a hell of a problem with the football section we were putting out in the fall. I wrote a two-page memo to my editor about how we could really make this thing work a lot better,” O’Connor said.

“Two weeks later, the publisher walked by my desk and said, ‘Would you like to go to lunch?’ I never turn down free lunches, especially from publishers. He said, ‘I’d like to offer you a new job,’ pulled out the memo I’d written, and said, ‘Here’s the job description.’ “

O’Connor joined the Star in 1966 as a copy editor, and met his wife, Linda Murney. He served as editor in the fall of 1968.

His first post-college job was a three-year stint in Rockford, interrupted by a 14-month tour of Vietnam. In 1972, O’Connor experienced more foreshadowing as editor and publisher of the Mendota Reporter. “The first thing he did was switch it from letterpress to offset,” Star alumna Kathy Farren said. “The letterpress is still in the basement.”

Despite loving the “immediacy” of small-town journalism, he returned to dailies in Decatur in 1978. He took his second production gig in Bloomington in 1987 and moved to Gannett in 1990, working in Stockton, Calif.; Utica, N.Y., and Montgomery, Ala.

He never forgot his newsroom days.

“I know how bad it is Friday night with football or basketball. I don’t need all the explanations. We need to just figure out how best we can get it done.”

Mike, an avid golfer, and Linda have three children, Timothy, Erin and Christopher. They are grandparents to 3-year-old Sam.