CCNMA Member & Former Executive Director Mike Castro Gone at 89

From Roofer to Newsman: The Epic Story of Mike Castro, Gone at 89

By Edgar Sanchez

Words of respect and appreciation filled a Sacramento chapel recently during a memorial service for Mike Castro, a former star reporter for The Sacramento Bee.

Mr. Castro, a longtime resident of California’s capital, died after a lengthy illness in a Bay Area hospital on January 17.  He was 89.
His family did not announce his passing until mid-March.

The soft-spoken Mr. Castro made his living as a roofer before transitioning to journalism in his 30s. He reported the news for a tiny Southern California newspaper prior to being hired by the Los Angeles Times, his employer for at least two years, according to his family. He joined The Bee as a writer circa 1979, covering a range of assignments for two decades -- from organized labor and West Sacramento’s incorporation as a city, in 1987, to a devastating earthquake in Mexico.

Proud to be Chicano, Mr. Castro helped the Spanish-speaking and all people. In the late 1970s or early 1980s, he founded the Sacramento Chapter of the California Chicano News Media Association, or CCNMA, which grooms young Latinos for journalism careers, partly through mentoring and scholarships.

In retirement, in 2001, Mr. Castro became the first person to be inducted into CCNMA’s Sacramento Hall of Fame.

“Mike was a trailblazer,” former Sacramento Bee Executive Editor Rick Rodriguez told mourners at the Sacramento chapel on March 22.

“To this day I receive phone calls from people who say thank you for the CCNMA scholarships they received” to support their paths toward the news industry, Rodriguez stated.

“Of course, it wasn’t just me,” Rodriguez emphasized.

“It was also Mike Castro and others,” he added, referring to professional journalists who, as CCNMA members, voluntarily train a new generation of future news gatherers.

Gregory Favre, who preceded Rodriguez as Bee executive editor, attended the service but did not speak.

Later, in an email to this writer, Mr. Favre said: “Mike was an excellent journalist and a good man.  He will be missed by many.”

In a powerful eulogy, his daughter said Mr. Castro was like a salmon, frequently swimming against the currents of life.

“My father spent most, if not all his years, swimming upstream,” Noelle Castro, his only surviving child, said.

Miguel Castro was the youngest of eight siblings – four boys, four girls.  He was born amid the Depression to Mexican immigrant parents in Torrance, Los Angeles County. Friends called him Mike.

The struggling family soon relocated to a small house in San Diego’s Logan Heights barrio.

There, Mr. Castro would recall, he and his three brothers slept together in a single bed, side by side.  By day, the entire family picked apples in nearby orchards.

During WWII, Mr. Castro sold newspapers along the old San Diego wharf, navigating his way through white-uniformed Navy sailors soon to be deployed to conflict zones. Many bought the paper from him.

At 14, he found trouble.

Convicted of stealing a car -- it had been left in a driveway, with motor running, a door wide open -- Mike Castro was sent to reform school.

In a life-changing move, he took a writing class taught by a Ms. Pearl in the correctional institution.

“Ms. Pearl changed my dad’s life,” Ms. Castro said.  “He wrote a story about true friendship. Ms. Pearl liked it.  She encouraged him to keep writing.

Freed after a year, Mr. Castro was rearrested in his early 20s as a drug addict, who was quickly convicted of drug-related offenses.

He was sentenced to two years, serving his time in a state hospital, not prison, because he vowed to “get clean” and never break the law again, his daughter said.

He kept his promise.

Once released, Mr. Castro toiled as a roofer – no one knows  exactly how long, except that it was for years. At night, he attended Los Angeles City College, mastering the basics of writing by earning an English degree.

Post-graduation, Mr. Castro launched his news career by photographing night-time car wrecks for a small newspaper. Gradually, he began writing the news.

By the late 1960s, Mr. Castro was a Los Angeles Times reporter.

While working El Monte’s “city beat,” a short drive from downtown L.A., he cultivated civic leaders as news sources. One was Richard Nauman, an El Monte planning commissioner and owner of a women’s apparel store in El Monte, where the former Delores (cq) Williams, who is of German-English descent, was a sales clerk.

“Mike would visit the store to talk to Mr. Nauman,” she said  after attending Mr. Castro’s memorial.  “It was part of Mike’s job, to find out what was going on in El Monte.

“But then Mike began dropping by when Mr. Nauman wasn’t there, like during lunch hour.  I soon realized that Mike was stopping by to see me, not Mr. Nauman,” Ms. Delores said with a smile.

Mr. Castro and Ms. Williams began dating, marrying in 1977.

They divorced more than 20 years later.

At The Bee, Mr. Castro was known for his dapper appearance.  He favored dark sportscoats with formal shirts and matching tie.

One day in roughly 1982, Mr. Castro learned that the Sacramento home of fellow Bee reporter Bill Lindelof had a leaky roof.

“I can help you with that,” Mr. Castro told him.

Early on a Saturday, his day off, Mr. Castro arrived at his colleague’s one-story home towing a wheeled hot tar kettle. Mr. Castro fired it up and threw cold tar into it, the adhesive quickly melting.

In a flash, Mr. Castro was on the roof, holding a new patch of rolled roofing, which he slapped with a mop saturated with molten tar.     

“He expertly repaired the roof,” Mr. Lindelof said.  “He used that hot mop like Leonardo da Vinci used a paint brush.

“Mike did it as a favor,” the now-retired writer said.  “That’s the kind of friend Mike was. He did a lot of nice things for people.”

Mr. Castro departed Sacramento five years ago to reside in Bay Area nursing homes.  In his final years he battled Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and other ailments. His remains were cremated in February.

Mr. Castro was preceded in death by his first wife, Marie Webster, and their children Florentia, Mike Jr. and Rhonda, as well as by a son, Joaquin, from his marriage to Ms. Delores, who taught community skills to adults with special needs.

In addition to his ex-wife and daughter, Mr. Castro is survived by 11 grandchildren.

Harry A. Nauman & Son Funeral Home organized the  memorial.

Edgar Sanchez was a Sacramento Bee news reporter for 23 years.  Before that, he wrote for The Palm Beach Post for eight years.