On April 5, former Reno News & Review news editor Dennis Myers became the first journalist ever inducted into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame.
Myers, who died of a stroke in 2019, is widely regarded as one of Nevada’s greatest journalists. His death was a news event of its own, meriting comments and obituaries from many of the state’s news institutions and public figures. Myers’ award was accepted by former Reno City Attorney and Reno Justice Court judge Patricia Lynch.
“I often ended up on the other side of the interview with Dennis Myers, and even though he was a friend, he still was very tenacious and really good, but he was always fair,” Lynch said in her acceptance speech. “I never feared meeting with him, that my words would be twisted or anything like that, because he was a fair journalist. He was after the truth, and that’s what we need.”
The César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame Awards were hosted this year by the Northern Nevada Central Labor Council, a federation of workers’ unions chartered under the umbrella of the AFL-CIO in 1956.
“Awardees historically have always been organizers or labor leaders who were tremendously successful in one campaign or another,” said NNCLC representative Wendy Colborne. “And that’s why it’s particularly relevant that Dennis Myers was inducted as a journalist. Due to his work for the labor movement, we felt it was appropriate.”
In years past, the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame awards were produced by Andrew Barbano, a longtime activist and columnist for the Sparks Tribune; Barbano organized the Hall of Fame awards from 2013 to 2019. Throughout his tenure, the Laborers’ Union Local 169 was the main sponsor of the event. When Barbano chose to step down as organizer after the pandemic postponed the event in 2020, the NNCLC offered to take ownership of the awards this year, with Barbano’s blessing.
A longtime friend and correspondent of Myers, Barbano nominated Myers for his posthumous acceptance into the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame in 2019, and also presented Myers and the RN&R staff with the Inaugural Eddie Scott/Bertha Woodard Human Rights Advocacy Award on behalf of the NAACP in 2015.
Barbano was also inducted into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame this year—a surprise by the NNCLC for his work as a labor advocate—and accepted his award over Zoom. According to Barbano, he intended to induct Myers into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame in 2020, but was unable to because of the pandemic.
“Every time organized labor did something, and I would send out stories, there were many times Dennis was interested in covering the story or some perspective on it,” Barbano said. “He was an honest and fair and accurate reporter, combined with a rare love for Nevada history. That’s something we both shared.”
Barbano touted many of Myers’ missives on his own Nevada Press Association-recognized column “Barbwire,” and penned memorial announcements on both his site and others after Myers’ death. An announcement on the Barbwire site above news of Myers’ induction reads succinctly: “Adios to a giant who stood strong for all Nevada workers.”