Maureen T. Meehan, retired longtime Inquirer editorial assistant, has died at 74

Maureen T. Meehan, 74, of Sewell, Gloucester County, retired editorial assistant and longtime undisputed most valuable person in The Inquirer’s Sports Department, died Friday, March 28, of a cardiac event at Jefferson Washington Township Hospital.

Mrs. Meehan joined The Inquirer in 1971 and spent most of the next four decades supporting, advising, rescuing, and inspiring hundreds of newsroom colleagues of all ages and positions. She handled phone calls from readers, adjusted the staff’s ever-changing schedules and travel plans, monitored budgets and expenses, solved mountains of logistic and personal problems, and generally made daily life in the chaotic newsroom bearable and often enjoyable.

She started out answering phone calls in the Action Line Department in the early 1970s, spent a few years in other departments, and then “ran the Sports Department,” said retired reporter Mike Jensen, from the early 2000s until her retirement in 2014.

“When she moved to sports, she brought order to an operation that had been largely chaos,” retired copy editor Al Campbell said in a Facebook tribute. Former sports editor Jim Jenks said: “She steadied the ship with a kind soul.”

When times got hectic, John Quinn, now retired as sports editor, said, “you’d turn to Maureen sitting next to you, and she’d give you a look, and you’d know what to do.”

Mrs. Meehan was a doting mother to a daughter and two sons at home in South Jersey, and younger colleagues at the office called her their “work mom” and “loving auntie.” She kept a stash of toys, coloring books, and goodies in her desk for when staffers brought their children to the office, and former Inquirer reporter Sam Carchidi said she even changed diapers for his kids.

“We never really went ‘into the office.’ We went in to see Maureen.”

She grew up in Southwest Philadelphia, one of six children, and family was always her focus. In 1981, she wrote an item for The Inquirer’s “Our Town” column about rewarding her children for chores well done by posting congratulatory check marks on their bedroom doors. One son was dismayed. “ ‘Oh, you want a star instead?’ I offered,” she wrote. “ ‘No!’ he cried. ‘The kind of check you take to the bank.’ ”

Of course, kindness, understanding, and humor weren’t always the best responses to thorny issues at home and work, and Mrs. Meehan was just as adept at turning off the charm. “If something was wrong, she’d let you know,” said her husband, Bryan, a retired director of advertising administration at The Inquirer and Daily News. “She would stand her ground and not be bullied or intimidated. Without saying a word, she could just give you a look, and you knew it was time to walk away from that conversation.”

Most often, however, she was the office rock that reporters on the road clung too. “I always told people if you’re in a jam at work and you have one phone call, Maureen is definitely the person to call,” reporter Kristen Graham said on Facebook. “She was one of a kind, a real pistol, wry, smart, kind, and thoughtful.”

She worked with reporter Frank Fitzpatrick for decades. “She was a buffer, a buddy, a balm,” he said in a tribute. Former Inquirer sportswriter Joe Logan called her “a friendly voice and a lifeline to the office.” Reporter Nick Fierro said: “She ran the whole show.”

“No matter the snafu, Maureen would say, ‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it.’ ”

Maureen Theresa McCloskey was born Sept. 23, 1950, in Philadelphia. She graduated from West Philadelphia Catholic Girls’ High School in 1968 and worked a few jobs before joining The Inquirer.

She met Bryan Meehan on Thanksgiving Day 1971 at The Inquirer, and they married in 1972, and had a daughter, Laura, and sons Bryan and Gregory. They lived in Yeadon and Audubon before moving to Sewell in 2019.

Mrs. Meehan told her husband she hung out with the boys, playing stickball and other games, when she was young, and she was the one who fetched the ball when it rolled into the sewer drain. “She was a tomboy,” her husband said. “But she was only interested in sports if her children were playing.”

She cared for her aging parents and took her grandchildren to museums and parks, and hosted countless sleepovers. She played dominoes with friends and liked black-and-white classic movies. She was active at Freedom Hope Church in Audubon and her Parke Place 55-plus community in Sewell.

“Maureen made everybody’s job easier, everybody’s day better. She was a gift.”

She routinely read the Bible and prayed before breakfast, and friends said she was always there when they needed bolstering of any kind. She mentored children at a nearby orphanage as a teenager, made wellness visits to homebound women as an adult, and sponsored two children abroad for nearly 30 years.

“I am a much, much better person for having been able to spend my life with her,” her husband said. Former Inquirer columnist Claire Smith said in a tribute: “She represented the best of us.”

In addition to her husband and children, Mrs. Meehan is survived by seven grandchildren, three brothers, a sister, and other relatives. A sister died earlier.

Visitation with the family is to be from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 5, at Freedom Hope Church, 255 Edgewood Rd., Audubon, N.J. 08106. A memorial service is to follow.

Donations in her name may be made to Compassion International, 12290 Voyager Parkway, Colorado Springs, Colo. 80921.