Meet Liam Dillon of the Naples Daily News
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Published on Sunday, 22 February 2009 22:09
Attend a monthly meeting of the Ave Maria Stewardship Community District, which governs the town of Ave Maria, and you won't see many town residents in the audience. But you're almost sure to see Liam Dillon, a reporter for the Naples Daily News (right, taking notes at the February meeting). Mr. Dillon has covered Ave Maria more closely than any other journalist. His articles have both delighted and irritated residents and those in positions of authority at the university and the developers.
His year-and-a-half of covering Ave Maria has been a unique experience, he said, and led him to develop an appreciation for a community which he says is much different from how it is often portrayed.
Mr. Dillon is a relative newcomer to Florida, having grown up in the Philadelphia area. He started to develop a strong interest in journalism as an undergraduate at Georgetown University in Washington, where he majored in political science. He worked on one of the college's student newspapers and covered high school sports part-time for the Washington Post. At graduation, he was torn between a "passion for writing" and a strong desire to teach in the Teach for America program. In 2005 he made what he says was a "difficult call" to decline Teach for America's offer of a post in New York City, and he went to work full-time covering high school sports for the Washington Post.
After a graduate program for journalists at the Poynter Institute in Tampa in 2006, Mr. Dillon sent resumes out all over the country, receiving three offers, from Evansville, IN, Gary, IN and Naples. "It was a pretty easy decision," he said. "I asked people in Evansville what they did for fun and they said, ‘we go to Kentucky."
Arriving in the fall of 2006, Mr. Dillon's first beat for the Naples Daily News was covering Marco Island. In the summer of 2007, a reporter who had been assigned to Ave Maria left, and Mr. Dillon added the town and university to his responsibilities. His first assignment was to cover the official opening of the town in July, 2007, then he worked on the three-day series the Naples Daily News ran on the town.
Ave Maria, he realized, is "historic."
"It stands as a model. Nothing on this scale has been attempted," he said, adding that the story also draws national attention because "people are watching the university, watching Tom Monaghan."
It's a story that has implications for many different communities of interest, he said. "We're seeing the implementation of a growth plan involving some of the largest landowners and environmental groups in the state of Florida," and how the model works will have an impact on future development in the state.
Covering Ave Maria has meant dealing with issues ranging from higher education, land development, town government and the Roman Catholic Church.
"I had a lot to learn, but that's part of the job." [As a journalist] "you're a supreme generalist, and could be covering the county fair one day and canon law the next. It's one reason I love the job."
He no longer covers Marco Island and has taken on responsibility for covering all higher education in southwest Florida but he'll continue to cover Ave Maria matters.
Based on some things he'd read before starting on the beat, he wasn't sure what to expect. Now, Mr. Dillon says, he has developed an appreciation for Ave Maria and its residents.
The town and the university, he said, are "far from what they're portrayed as" in many blogs and media outlets. "It's been a great experience to try to break down some issues in a manner other than the steroptypical way Ave Maria is often viewed."
"It's fair to say I had some apprehension about the type of people I'd meet. But I have been overwhelmed by the kindness of everyone I've met and the openness of people telling their stories to me."
"When I get called by people for information about Ave Maria, I try to pierce some some of those stereotypes, which aren't true."
Left, Mr. Dillon -- wearing the cap of his hometown Philadelphia Phillies right after they won the World Series -- speaking to Hampton Village resident Marilyn Cole in November before the arrival of Sen. Sam Brownback at The Bean.
