I should've picked up Ray Steele's hints a couple of weeks ago. "I thought you'd been retired by now," he said to me as a group of Clovis citizens met with him to discuss the demise of the Clovis Independent newspaper.

"How come you're not retired?" I parried, in style characteristic of my 30 years in the news biz. Steele shrugged his shoulders.

So, when his retirement as Fresno Bee publisher was announced Sept. 29 after 40+ years with the McClatchy newspaper chain, I was relieved and saddened.

Relieved because Steele's high-stress, chain-smoking, mince-few-words lifestyle hopefully will catch a second wind now that he's turned 63. Saddened because another crucial part of the Valley's institutional memory -- and regional advocacy -- is leaving the enormously important bully-pulpit of the mass media.

Steele was city editor and one of my first bosses when I joined The Fresno Bee in 1981. In the days before he "went corporate" (and before McClatchy took the company public and became dollar-driven), Steele was a focused, nurturing newsman. I arrived from Wisconsin with a pregnant wife and no time-off accrued when my son was born. No problem, he said, take a few days off. You'll work it off.

And for 20 years, before joining Community Medical Centers in 2001, I think I did. (I also somehow lost the baby-size Dodgers uniform that columnist Bill McEwen gave me -- Mr. Yankees fan -- for my son. Now McEwen and I are part of "the brotherhood of the badge" -- both of us have sons in Valley law enforcement.)

Steele now joins the crazy quilt of veteran journos -- Rich, Gail, Louie, Chuck, Gene, dozens more -- who've retired, been bought out or otherwise squeezed out in the economic magma that has seen newspapers downsize to a veritable rear-guard of relentless numbers crunchers, scrappy and nervous vets, clueless hangers-on and hopeful web-savvy others.

Don't get me wrong. I welcome Web. 2.0 and its progeny -- whatever Twitter and YouTube beget, lemme in.  Still, as a citizen who's way more Central California than he is Brooklyn, N.Y., I hope we can find a way to use the memory of where we've been -- mistakes and victories -- to lead us carefully and creatively where we need to go.

It would be terrific if Valley news people knew where Yettem was (and what it was), how Selland Arena got its name and how Clovis was reshaped by Operation Rezone.

Going forward, it's even more important to have reporters/bloggers comprehend the arcane world of health care in which Level 1 trauma (at Community Regional) is the highest level of care and yet, seemingly conversely, a Level III neonatal intensive care unit (coming soon also at Community Regional) is the top level of care in that specialty. That's relatively simple compared to fully grasping disproportionate share hospital payments and managed-care Medi-Cal.

In '81, The Fresno Bee had full-time reporters on numerous "beats," including labor and military. Now, pretty much everyone who's left does everything -- for print and the Web. Not a bad thing, but how well the old news horses morph while still afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted is still the aorta.

In the meantime, I hope Steele and all my former colleagues find whatever new fires or fun they fancy. Finally, just for the record,  some high-profile Valley folks tend to use initials or entirely bypass their first names -- H. Spees (Harold), G.L. Johnson (George).  It's actually "C. Ray Steele Jr." -- be sure to wish "Chester" the best.