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Oakland Tribune

November 6, 2010 by · Comments Off on Oakland Tribune 

Oakland Tribune, Dennis J. Oliver, a veteran police reporter for several newspapers and the environment now owned by the company, has died after a brief illness. He was 47.

Oliver began with the Alameda Newspaper Group (now Bay Area News Group-East Bay) in June 1981 and initially worked in the Tri-Valley Herald in Pleasanton and Hayward daily review of both places as award-winning police reporter. He moved to the politics of environmental information, and writing, research news and special projects for the Oakland Tribune and other papers Alameda Newspaper Group, where he remained until 2000. More recently he has worked in the environment of public affairs.

Oliver, of Incline Village, Nevada, died in a hospital in Carson City, Nevada, after an illness of a month.

After leaving newspapers, Oliver worked as director of communications for the Sacramento-based California Alliance for Jobs, where he focused on the promotion of public infrastructure projects. Over the past three and half years, he worked as public information officer for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, or TRPA, a colleague said.

“Dennis made a great impact on Lake Tahoe during his time here,” said the director of external affairs agency, Julie Regan, his supervisor and colleague. “We will remember her smile, her extraordinary talent and especially his strong commitment to the restoration of Lake Tahoe.”

While he was a reporter, who won numerous awards, covering a variety of breaking news

stories and writing research papers

In 1988, while working at the Hayward Daily Review, Oliver and his fellow journalist Karen Welk were honored by the Press Club of San Francisco with a first-place award for reporting under pressure within 03 1987 murder of police officer Ben Hayward Worcester. The two wrote a story about violent death and its impact on the lives of families and people involved, which fell within a few hours of slaughter.

Don Buchholz, editor of the night before the daily review that worked with Oliver in the 1980’s and early 1990, remembered him as “a bulldog of a reporter who gave 111 percent effort in everything that made our police reporter. He had an outstanding work ethic … and a really excellent job. ”

In 1990, Oliver earned a second place award in the category of research for The Associated Press Executives Council of California and Nevada for a story about bus drivers working without a license for AC Transit.

His reports and the interests of life were varied.

Oakland Tribune reporter and columnist Angela Hill worked with Oliver between 1993 and 2000 in the Tri-Valley Herald and the Oakland Tribune. Oliver said she loved a good mystery. When Hill was an internship at the Tri-Valley Herald, Oliver was a writer, experienced staff. One day the two were sent together to find a severed leg that an anonymous caller had reported seeing up in the desert, winding Mines Road in Livermore.

“We never found the leg, and neither did the police, it was disappointing to Dennis, who hoped to become a ball great news,” said Hill.

The two crossed paths again when Oliver was an assistant city editor at the Herald, and again in the Tribune as a reporter of the environment. “He was always solid and deep, and immersed himself in what he did, at work and in other parts of your life,” he said.

Oliver loved nature and the outdoors and wrote two regional travel guides, nature and outdoors, “Inside Out Northern California” (1999) and “Camping! Northern California” (2001). He supported the arts and enjoyed painting in his spare time. He was an avid poker player and supported many charity poker tournaments in casinos near his home, said a friend.

Chris Campos, a designer with the San Jose Mercury News, Oliver knew for more than 30 years. “I was surprised to hear of the death of Dennis. Dennis was a professional news experience enormous talent and determination.”

“I met Dennis in the Hayward Daily Review where he initially worked as an employee of wire for me. When I moved to the metro desk, I was able to promote its first reporter position. Was a decision that never regret. He learned ropes and quickly became one of the most prolific and tenacious journalists of our staff. I worked with him at various functions and places in the next 20 years and was very sad to see leave newspapers for the public sector. As a colleague and a friend, greatly miss him. “

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