The story was buried at the bottom of page five in the Sept. 18, 1970, Pipe Dream, just the third edition of the twice-weekly newspaper under its new name. The anodyne headline: “adams stumps at harpur” (all lower case — that was the Pipe Dream format in those days). It was a story about the Conservative Party candidate for governor, Paul Adams, addressing a group of 50 in Lecture Hall Two. His platform was to lower taxes, combat the use of hard drugs and maintain peace on SUNY campuses in an era of widespread college protests against the Vietnam War.

I have no idea how many people read the story, but I sent copies to my parents on Long Island.

They didn’t care about the candidate, but they were interested in the byline: “by Ellis Bromberg.” It was my first Pipe Dream story and it would mark an important milestone in my life: My experiences at Pipe Dream would lead to a 40-year career in journalism and broadcasting, and marriage to one of my Pipe Dream colleagues, Mel Cohen Bromberg (we just celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary in August!).

SUNY Binghamton in the early ‘70s was a hotbed of political activism, counterculture clashes and internal change. There was so much for the newspaper to cover: Within our largely white student body, Black students were demanding their own separate floors in campus dorms. The 26th Amendment to the Constitution granted 18-year-olds the right to vote, but local officials insisted that SUNY-B students register in their hometowns and not vote in Binghamton or Vestal. Roe v. Wade, legalizing abortion, was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court to the delight of women and men on campus. University President Bruce Dearing left in 1971, leading to a nationwide search for a new president. The illegal use of marijuana was widespread on campus. College-in-the-Woods was under construction. SUNY-B professor Bruce McDuffie made international headlines when he discovered high levels of methylmercury in store-bought tuna cans. And the Vietnam War raged on.

I had the opportunity to cover many of these stories, and over the next few years I rose from reporter to news editor to managing editor and, ultimately, editor-in-chief in spring 1973.

In November 1973, Binghamton radio station WNBF was planning its election night coverage and asked Mitch Pearlstein, SUNY-B’s director of public information, to recommend a student to assist them. Aware of my experience at Pipe Dream, Mitch suggested me, and I reported live that night from Johnson City, where a new mayor was elected. It was supposed to be a one-night gig, but about a month later, WNBF’s news director offered me a part-time job on their news team. Since I lived in Endicott, the station assigned me to cover that village’s board meetings, and they gave me my first business card with a title: Endicott Bureau Chief (the “bureau” was our kitchen table — and I still have one of those cards!).

When I began college, my intention was to become a lawyer. But my experiences at Pipe Dream led to a change in plans: I would earn my M.A. in journalism, instead, at the Ohio State University, then work for the next 25 years in on-air news and management positions at PBS television and NPR radio stations in Upstate New York and Illinois. In 2000, I was named general manager of Milwaukee PBS, where I would become the second longest-serving leader (15 years) in the station’s history. I also had the gratifying experience of working with my father and daughter — three generations of Brombergs — on revising one of the best-selling vocabulary books in the country, “1100 Words You Need To Know.”

I made lifelong friends at Pipe Dream, including the four who preceded me as editors-in-chief: Peter Salgo, Jay Rubin, Howie Shaw and Joyce Levine. There are many others too numerous to list among the group of amazing colleagues who taught me so much and enriched my life.

But most important of all: I met Mel at Pipe Dream! She was one of our star reporters, specializing in stories about the arts. In May 1972, while covering an anti-war protest in Downtown Binghamton for Pipe Dream, she was swept up by the police into a paddy wagon along with the demonstrators. Fifty students were arrested that day, but Mel made news — and struck a blow for press freedom — when the police released her after being informed that her First Amendment rights as a reporter covering the story had been violated.

Mel, who graduated with me in 1974, is smart and funny and creative and beautiful. We were married in 1976, had a daughter in 1986 (a talented performer who lives in Manhattan), and have lived “happily ever after,” cycling through a dozen homes in four states, finally landing in Port St. Lucie, Florida, in 2015. Mel has had an impressive career: as a leader in environmental organizations; a college instructor; working with the United Nations and Rotary on international water projects and serving on local boards of the Indian River Lagoon Council, the League of Women Voters and the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

As for me, now in “retirement,” I produce and host a weekly music program on public radio in southern Florida, co-host a weekly podcast about local and state politics and write a monthly column for an international philatelic newsletter.

And it all started — a career and wonderful marriage — in Pipe Dream’s busy office in the old Student Center.

I never saw Paul Adams again, but he did all right for himself, too, eventually serving as president of Roberts Wesleyan College near Rochester. In 1970, although finishing third in that race for governor (Nelson Rockefeller was reelected), Adams did garner 422,000 votes, not bad for a minor party candidate. And I’ve got to believe that a very well-written story by a Pipe Dream cub reporter had a little to do with his success — as well as mine.