15 Gary Lawson PHOTOGRAPHY “Every day somebody is doing something different,” says the OSU alumnus. “Lindsay Lohan is either in jail, out of jail or thinking about going to jail. Mel Gibson is drunk in a bar in Malibu popping off. There’s never a dull moment.” Tourtellotte is Reuters’ editor-in-charge for entertainment in Los Angeles. It’s his job to be sure his employer, one of the world’s largest wire services, has the scoop on whatever shenanigans occur, in addition to the latest on movies, music and television. It’s a pretty good gig for anybody, especially a guy who grew up in Oklahoma City helping his family in the backbreaking business running apartment buildings in Stillwater. Hollywood Crazy STORY BY Matt Elliott LEFT Bob Tourtel lotte ’84, middle, met wi th OSU media and strategic communicat ions students in spr ing 2010 to discuss his career as an edi tor for Reuters, one of the largest mul t imedia news agencies. His fami ly — his father, Dick Tourtel lotte ’54, and sister, Debra Thomas, f lank the edi tor photographed on the OSU campus ear l ier this year — has a long legacy of involvement wi th OSU. His dad and grandfather were raised in Stillwater, and his grandmother Beatrice Tourtellotte was one of the first women to receive an advanced degree from OSU. She owned the first apartment building in town, he says, and the family home was on Hester Street. Tourtellotte remembers playing with his cousins at his aunt’s house on nearby Knoblock Street. “My brother and sister were here,” Tourtellotte says. “We just gravitated to Oklahoma State.” While managing apartments for his family, he double-majored in business administration and economics after trying his hand at mass communications. He’s quick to note he didn’t double major to impress anyone. He had found a loophole that let him graduate with a double major without taking many more credit hours, he says. CONTINUES Bob Tourtellotte can always count on Hollywood producing enough crazy to keep him on his toes.
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