It was about the fine-tuning of copy; massaging it, slashing it, rewriting it, all to get the best, most accurate, most lively yarn on the page.

The grandest moment came though when the printing press roared awake.

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In the old Albury days this also involved a very early morning whirling hum and rattle, whose rough yet grand crescendo reached into then filled the newsroom directly upstairs.

Many a reporter from those times, til the end of the 1990s, would fondly recall having a few beers on the town to mark the end of the working week then dropping in to grab a freshly minted paper on the way home.

Nothing could compare with the smell, the feel and the buzz of holding and reading that big, proud Saturday edition.

It was what the newspaper game was all about.

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The digital age, which this masthead has embraced with gusto, has for many newspapers taken away that direct link with the printing press.

That is, except, for the crew working on the Border, given the printed version is still of vital importance to those many thousands of readers who literally still want ink-infused news in their hands.

And to return to that saying, if ever someone truly could go close to having "ink in the veins" it would be Frank O'Grady.

Since 1974, after learning his trade in Wangaratta, he has been an integral part of the team, one that he has led on the floor for so many years.

The tributes on his retirement are testament to just how good he has been at his job.

For ex-general manager Damian Balkin, he was "basically the glue that kept the print sites going".

Newsprinters production manager Marcus Kostelac talks of the "privilege" afforded to him through working with someone he'll miss for his "printing experience, reliability, attention to quality and enthusiasm for the printing industry".

He might be bowing out, getting precious time to spend with grandkids and the love of his life, wife Anne, but one thing will never change - Frank O'Grady always will be, forever more, a newspaper man.

And one of the very best at that.

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