San Antonio Express-News obit

Reporter wrote of overlooked groups
Carmina Danini
Express-News

John Gutierrez-Mier, a former reporter for the San Antonio Express-News whose favorite stories were about groups that were vulnerable, has died at 43.

On the staff of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram since 2002, he died Friday in Dallas of what is believed to have been a heart attack, said an aunt, Virginia Gutierrez of Philadelphia.

He had been on short-term disability status from the Fort Worth newspaper since April.

"John was a reporter who worked hard to connect with the communities he covered. He liked to tell stories about real people and real lives," said Rex Seline, Star-Telegram managing editor/news.

"He had been battling health problems for many months, and we had hoped he was getting better. This turn of events is shocking and sad."

Born with a congenital heart defect, Gutierrez-Mier was on a waiting list for a heart transplant. To buy him time until the transplant could take place, doctors performed triple bypass surgery Aug. 7 at Dallas' Medical City Hospital.

He left the hospital four days later and was resting at a hotel before flying home to El Paso on Saturday, 11 days after the surgery.

"John was so passionate about covering communities of color. He was devoted about bringing stories about people who didn't have a voice," said Macarena Hernandez, currently a staff writer with the Dallas Morning News and formerly with the Express-News.

"He felt like it was his duty to explain Islam. The day before he died, he called some of his sources to tell them he wouldn't be back for a while," Hernandez said. "He was even making plans what to do post-transplant, like teaching English to immigrants."

In covering minority affairs and religion at the Express-News, Gutierrez-Mier paid attention to areas not often covered before, such as African American neighborhoods and San Antonio's gay community, said Henry Krausse, at the time an assistant city editor who supervised him.

"He introduced a lot of readers here to aspects of their city they were completely unaware of, like the role of East Side churches in keeping kids in school," Krausse said.

"He was always coming up with ideas for feature stories that had a larger cultural point. He was one of the friendliest people I've ever met, and he got out of the office and got around, and those two things produced great stories."

A graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso, Gutierrez-Mier had also been a reporter with the News Journal in Wilmington, Del., and the El Paso Herald-Post.

He'd been with the Express-News in the 1980s and returned to San Antonio in November 1997, one month after the Herald-Post closed down.

In 2002, he went to work for the Star-Telegram.

He is survived by his parents, Juan A. Mier Jr. and Yolanda G. Mier, both of El Paso; a brother, Rodolfo Mier of Houston; and two sisters, Marie Metz of Orlando, Fla., and Margaret Horsch, also of El Paso.

A funeral service is pending.

A celebration of life will be in the Dallas-Fort Worth area Oct. 27.

cdanini@express-news.net