If you’re a Delaware County native or even just lived there at some point in the past four decades, you know who Phil Heron is.

Today the longtime Delco Times editor announced that he’s leaving the paper after 38 years, in a blurb that was attached to the end of his weekly column:

And finally, a personal note. I have been writing this weekly Letter From the Editor faithfully since 1999. I know, I’ve been here forever. I actually started at the Daily Times in 1982. That’s why it’s difficult to announce this will be my last week at the newspaper. My last day will be this Friday, April 17.

I’ll have more to say about it later this week.

In the meantime, I will be eternally grateful to our faithful readers, even those who have vehemently disagreed with me, or the newspaper.

We need you know more than ever.

In a blog post, Heron said that the departure was his decision, “at least in part,” so I’m assuming he agreed to the voluntary separation that MediaNews Group offered employees at the beginning of the month. We obtained a copy of that separation plan sent to staff, which offered one week of pay per one year of non-union service, or bargained severance to union members.

Phil was a Delco OG, working at the paper since before I was even born. He had been there for almost four decades, which earns automatic respect in this field. Go to his Twitter page and look at the responses for confirmation.

One of the sad things about the Coronavirus nonsense is that a lot of these veteran news and sports folks are moving on under extra crappy circumstances. There’s no retirement party, no staff gathering, no celebratory cake that the Executive VP picked up from Wegman’s at the very last minute. People like Phil, Cindy Webster, and Rob Charry are just moving on to the next thing with some social media posts and not much else. It’s a lame situation all around.