ATLANTA— Harold Rhoden was a man I wish I had know better. I met him only once, and even that meeting was very brief. I kept thinking our paths would cross again, but they never did. And now, of course, they never will.

     I can't recall having ever written about Harold more than once. But in 1982, when Justin Gillis from Vidalia was named editor of the University of Georgia student newspaper, The Red and Black, the announcement triggered a column in which Harold was featured.

     I wrote about the time when, almost unbelievably, three consecutive editors of that student journal at the university were from Toombs County. Harold, the first, was followed by Dan Kitchens and Dan by my cousin Roger Branch.

     That column was headed "Red, Black and Toomb-ish." Bill Ledford or someone at this newspaper came up with the clever idea of letting the word "Red" in the headline be printed in red ink, while the rest of the headline was printed in the usual black. I liked that.

     I seem to remember that a number of years after that column was written, someone else from Vidalia or its environs also became editor of The Red and Black, but I can't remember who it was.