Selection of articles by St. Pete Times Columnist Jan Glidewell. James J. 'Jan' Glidewell was born Feb 19, 1944 in Miami, FL. He attended Southwest Miami High School but dropped out, completing high school later. Jan served five years in the Marine Corps as a parachute-qualified radiotelegraph operator, including 10 months in Vietnam in the mid 1960s and the 1965 U.S. occupation of the Dominican Republic. He left as a sergeant. Jan began work in journalism covering the city beat for the Kankakee, Ill., Daily Journal and was a sports editor for the New Bern, N.C., Sun-Journal. Later and most notably he was a regular columnist for the St. Pete Times, reporting on serial killers and hookers, dirty politicians and kidnapped children. Living and writing in Dade City, FL, Jan provided readers on Florida's North Suncoast an unlikely breakfast table companion, a nudist hippie airing liberal political commentary and tales of his five marriages. Jan Glidewell rolled into the St. Petersburg Times newsroom, a high school dropout with an unapologetic swagger. He was hired against the advice of the paper's executive editor and retired 30 years later a local icon.
Selection of articles by St. Pete Times Columnist Jan Glidewell. James J. 'Jan' Glidewell was born Feb 19, 1944 in Miami, FL. He attended Southwest Miami High School but dropped out, completing high school later. Jan served five years in the Marine Corps as a parachute-qualified radiotelegraph operator, including 10 months in Vietnam in the mid 1960s and the 1965 U.S. occupation of the Dominican Republic. He left as a sergeant. Jan began work in journalism covering the city beat for the Kankakee, Ill., Daily Journal and was a sports editor for the New Bern, N.C., Sun-Journal. Later and most notably he was a regular columnist for the St. Pete Times, reporting on serial killers and hookers, dirty politicians and kidnapped children. Living and writing in Dade City, FL, Jan provided readers on Florida's North Suncoast an unlikely breakfast table companion, a nudist hippie airing liberal political commentary and tales of his five marriages. Jan Glidewell rolled into the St. Petersburg Times newsroom, a high school dropout with an unapologetic swagger. He was hired against the advice of the paper's executive editor and retired 30 years later a local icon.
