The Conquering Cop/reader

"The newspaper copyreader," wrote the late New York Herald Tribune City Editor Stanley Walker, "doubtless deserves better from fate than he has received. He is completely anonymous. His job usually is monotonous. His deft touches with a pencil may raise a story out of the ordinary, but it is the handsome, much-publicized reporter who gets the credit. The copyreader sits on the rim of the horseshoe desk, does his stint, and then goes home."

Copyreader Robert Manry, 48, went home to Cleveland last week, and proved that a man who manicures the news can also make it. Back from his high adventure--crossing the Atlantic in 78 days in his 131-ft. sloop, the Tinkerbelle--Manry was given a Cleveland reception that few celebrities and no other copyreaders have received. Ohio Governor James Rhodes greeted him and his family at the airport, praised him as "the epitome of dedication and devotion to sailing." His wife wept. A motorcade took him to Cleveland's Public Square, where he was met by 3,000 well-wishers, many of them sporting blue and white Manry buttons passed out by his newspaper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Manry was welcomed by Ohio Senator Frank Lausche and Cleveland Mayor Ralph Locher. The mayor handed him the key to the city and hailed his "courage and faith." Fifteen hundred people crowded into the Sheraton-Cleveland Hotel for a luncheon in his honor. Said Plain Dealer Publisher Tom Vail: "Here is a man who is not afraid to back up his dreams with action."

What did Manry's fellow copyreaders think of his sudden leap out of anonymity? "He was here when I arrived five years ago," said one, "and quite honestly, I never did know much about him until this happened."

At a press conference, Manry said that he plans to go back to the copy desk but has no intention of letting fame slip by. Besides writing articles for the paper on his voyage, he will turn out a book. The title, he added, will not be The Old Manry and the Sea.

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