SANTA CRUZ — Santa Cruz County residents and current and former Sentinel staff, as well as family and friends, have been mourning the loss of longtime reporter Jessica York, who died Saturday morning after a four-year battle with neuroendocrine cancer less than two weeks shy of her 44th birthday.
York, who joined the Sentinel staff in 2014, was praised by those who knew her as a hard-working, conscientious reporter who was dedicated to her craft and the community that she called home for 11 years.
Santa Cruz Sentinel reporter Jessica York. (Santa Cruz Sentinel file)
“Jess was a top-notch journalist, but she was a better friend and a better person,” said former Assistant Editor Don Fukui.
York was born Jan. 22, 1981, and grew up in western Massachusetts where she developed a love for the written word at a young age. Her younger sister, Tanya, recalled how she would try to get her to play games but she would mostly be engrossed in reading books.
“She’s always been a writer,” she said. “I don’t think there was a day in her life where she was ever going to be anything but.”
Eventually, York gravitated toward journalism and joined the staff of her school paper at West Springfield High School where she graduated sixth in her class in 1999. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 2003 with a degree in journalism and interned at the Nashua Telegraph for a semester. She moved to Vermont where she was a reporter at the Bennington Banner from 2004 to 2006 and met her future husband, Luke Graves.
When Graves was accepted into school for computer animation in California, York joined him out west and they moved to Oakland, where she freelanced at the Alameda Journal from 2006 to 2007, then became a full-time reporter at the Benicia Herald in Solano County from 2007 to 2008. From there, she joined the staff of the Vallejo Times-Herald where she covered local politics.
Editor Jack Bungart praised York as a smart and talented reporter.
“She just had a great understanding of stories and how to get stories and write good stories,” he said. “Any subject that she tackled, she really made herself know it.”
Beyond that, Bungart said she was a very nice person.
“Every new reporter we brought in immediately took to her,” he said.
Thomas Gase, a reporter for the Times-Herald since 2011, said York was one of the first people to welcome him to the job. When he handled layout, York would have one of the last assigned stories of the night, usually a City Council meeting, and allocate her a certain amount of space.
“She’d have an hour to write it, I’d say ‘Give me 20 inches,’ and she took pride in turning it in, saying ’19 inches!’ or ’21 inches!’ getting as close to that mark as possible,” he said. “She took a lot of pride when she hit that mark.”
Gase praised her writing as well.
“She was a very good writer, very fair, dedicated, got both sides of the story, but her copy was clean and she was just a fun person to work with,” he said.
After a six-year stint at the Times-Herald, York moved to Santa Cruz to join the Sentinel in 2014. Her beats were primarily crime, courts and homelessness, but she also covered Santa Cruz city politics, schools and the San Lorenzo Valley Water District as well as human interest stories.
No matter what she covered, Fukui said York was well-versed in her beats.
“She was tenacious, but she was also very good at knowing her beat and the history and the details around her beat,” he said. “She knew the city of Santa Cruz, city government like the back of her hand.”
Her work was praised by those on the beats she covered. Jeff Rosell, Santa Cruz County district attorney, said York was very professional.
“She covered difficult cases with dignity and grace,” he said. “She will be missed.”
Elaine Johnson, executive director of Housing Santa Cruz County, said York was always engaged in covering stories and getting the right information during interviews.
“She was compassionate and loving and attentive and soft,” she said. “She made the process feel so much easier and more personable.”
Jessica York walks through the camp in the San Lorenzo Park Benchlands in 2021 while covering the issue of homelessness. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
Former Mayor Don Lane, who also teaches a class at UC Santa Cruz on homelessness, often invited York as a guest speaker. Since she was not comfortable with public speaking, he would arrange to ask her questions as an inverse of how they used to interact.
“I would interview her in front of the class to turn the table on how my relationship had been with her for many years where she was always interviewing me,” he said.
Lane was always appreciative of the way she covered homelessness.
“I’ve so admired her dedication to covering that really difficult issue so sensitively and intelligently,” he said.
Marc Desjardins, who served as news editor of the Sentinel from 2010 to 2017, said York was dedicated to her work.
“She always wanted to get the story right,” he said. “She was very particular, she made the extra call, she cared very deeply about reporting and the value of community newspapers.”
Melissa Murphy, who served as editor from 2018 to 2022, said York was diligent in covering everything from homelessness to the CZU Lightning Complex fires.
Reporter Jessica York and photographer Shmuel Thaler at the Santa Cruz Sentinel office in 2019 as they headed out to cover a storm. (Santa Cruz Sentinel file)
“She really enjoyed her work as a journalist, and she was passionate about telling the stories of her community,” she said.
Another passion of York’s was running. She was part of a local running group and could often be seen running in trails throughout the county, including The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Aptos and Skypark in Scotts Valley, at very early morning hours. Fellow runner Rich Larson said York was inspired to join after former reporter Calvin Men talked about a run he went on across the Golden Gate Bridge.
“She just heard about a group of people and said ‘That’s the kind of group I want to be a part of,’” said Larson. “Of course, she was welcomed and just became a huge part of this.”
Larson said York would always proudly display the various miles she ran on her car. However, Desjardins said she was not “a snooty runner.”
“She told a friend that you don’t need to be remarkable to be a runner,” he said. “You just have to be able to stick a training plan on the fridge, then check off the runs. Her rules for joining the club were simple. You had to show up and be kind. That’s pretty much Jess in a nutshell — she showed up for everything and for everybody, and her kindness could fill a room.”
During these runs, Murphy said York also took time to soak in the abundant nature of Santa Cruz County.
“She loved life and stopped to enjoy those special moments,” she said.
In 2021, York was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer, a rare disease in which neuroendocrine cells develop into tumors. Amid her diagnosis, Murphy said York was worried she wouldn’t be able to work.
“What I remember her saying was ‘I want to continue to work if you’ll let me,’ and I was just so taken aback by her saying ‘Let me’ because she clearly wanted to keep working until she couldn’t,” she said.
Tom Wright, the Sentinel’s editor, praised York’s contributions to the newsroom and to the community.
“Jess made everyone around her better,” he said. “She was a mentor in the newsroom and even helped reporters from other outlets better inform the public.”
Despite her diagnosis, York kept a positive attitude and remained focused on her work, filing her final story five days before her death. Throughout it all, Tanya said her sister was all about living her life.
“Cancer didn’t suddenly turn her into the person who was like, ‘Oh no, what’s my bucket list? What do I do now?’” she said. “She already lived life like that. She didn’t need cancer to make her realize that you should already be living your life.”
Jessica York, center at the Boardwalk Bowl in Nov. with former colleagues Nick Ibarra, Elaine Richert, Kara Guzman and Don Fukui. The group was there to raise money for WomenCare, a local nonprofit that provides advocacy, resources, practical and emotional support, and education for women who have cancer and their families. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
On Sunday, approximately 50 of York’s friends and colleagues gathered for a run at the Forest of Nisene Marks, a favorite spot of hers, to honor her memory.
Sentinel photographer Shmuel Thaler praised her friendship and professionalism.
“She was that rare journalist who was able to maintain the required skepticism to ask essential questions without ever falling into cynicism,” he said. “She cared deeply about every single person she wrote about or interviewed. She brought humanity and empathy to her work and made me a better journalist by showing up as her best self each day.”
Sports editor Jim Seimas said York would bring the same level of care in her writing to her personal life. He recalled telling her how much he enjoyed processed syrup on his pancakes and French toast, but York — a native New Englander — wasn’t having it.
“She went on vacation to visit relatives on the East Coast during Christmas a few months later, and when she returned, she presented me with a bottle of pure maple syrup from New Hampshire,” he said. “It had a bow on it.That was such a thoughtful and sweet, literally, gift.”
Fellow reporter Aric Sleeper said York would push him to be a better writer.
“York was a dedicated and dogged reporter, and when she sensed I was slacking off or not covering something I should be, she would let me know — even on her days off,” he said. “This would initially annoy me but I always knew she was right and would step up my game accordingly. York would also never hesitate to drop what she was doing to help me if I asked for it — even on her days off. She made me a better journalist in every way and her tenacious spirit will continue to inspire me even after her transfer to the big news bureau in the sky.”
PK Hattis, another fellow reporter, said journalism was not just a career for her — it was a calling.
“Her writing was always incisive yet approachable; concise yet eloquent; tough yet sensitive,” he said. “In a time when trust in the media is faltering, Jess’ work is a testament to the immense value of diligent, honest and empathetic reporting. May her legacy live on through that body of work and through the many reporters that knew her, particularly those of an even greater fortune that were lucky enough to have called her a friend.”
Details regarding a memorial are still being worked out.
