TJFR Business News Reporter 2.0: The 'Me Beat': Neal Templin Reports on...Mrs. Neal Templin

March 04, 2009

The 'Me Beat': Neal Templin Reports on...Mrs. Neal Templin

By Dean Rotbart
Executive Editor

The day will come, NewsBios forecasts, when we will see one family member suing another for libel over a story in a major newspaper, magazine or broadcast. It's a safe bet given how many news scribes have turned to first-person storytelling.

We don't know if Neal Templin's wife, Clarissa Acuña was unhappy with Mr. Templin's February 19th Cheapskate column in The Wall Street Journal. Probably not. In fact, in a breach of journalism standards, we suspect Mr. Templin let Mrs. Templin, the subject of his column, read the article and make corrections ahead of publication. Tsk. Tsk.

What struck us about this single column is just how much personal information Mr. Templin willingly discloses. Makes our job constructing his NewsBio oh so much easier. Thanks, Neal.

Here are the highlights.

Neal's mom was a working mom.
He assumed Clarissa would also work for a living.
She stopped working way back in the summer of 1991, ahead of their third child.
"I work and earn. She takes care of the kids."
Clarissa is bilingual and has a marketing degree.
Living on one salary was a financial squeeze.
He has already put his eldest two kids through college.
"I do worry about our household being completely dependent on one wage earner in a contracting economy."
A few years ago his youngest son developed a painful neurological disorder.
Clarissa graduated from college in 1989.
Her hobbies include gardening and photography.
"Life comes to you if you wait long enough," she says.