Eric Freehling

Eric Freehling began his career in journalism in the early 1980s at the Kittanning Leader-Times, where his coworkers considered him high-tech because he knew how to work the cutting-edge machine that replaced the reporters’ typewriters.

“When I started, the most innovative thing was a video display terminal,” Freehling said. “It wasn’t a computer.”

Fast forward 43 years, and Freehling is a TikTok star who posts news items on social media.

“The whole industry has changed,” he said. “Now, I’m ending at a paper that has Twitter, podcasts and videos on the internet.”

Freehling retired Friday after 11 years at the Butler Eagle, first as Focus editor, which was later retitled Community editor.

In addition to seeing that the musicals, plays, and prom kings and queens from each Butler County school district were published in the Eagle each year, Freehling wrote countless creative feature stories on a wide arc of subjects for readers to enjoy.

He named among his favorite feature stories the “zonkey,” or zebra-donkey crossbreed that lives in Butler Township; stories on World War II and Korean War veterans; and Butler County Historical Society events, such as the annual Cemetery Walk.

Freehling also got a kick out of the unusual stories he wrote, like a man who collects hearses, and 200 yoga enthusiasts practicing an ancient form of the exercise at a multi-religion sanctuary in Cherry Township.

“It was always something different every day,” Freehling said.

He especially appreciates the Eagle’s emphasis on community news, as national and international stories can be found on the internet, but not the tax increase approved by township supervisors or the strawberry pies a Summit Township grandmother makes each year for a church fish fry.

“I’ve met a lot of good people, and I’ve learned peoples’ interesting stories,” Freehling said.

Although he is of retirement age, Freehling is no fuddy duddy.

He can be seen in several hilarious TikToks created by the young journalists in the Eagle newsroom, including one in which reporters celebrated Sept. 21, 2022, by dancing to Earth, Wind & Fire’s toe tapper, “September.”

The video went viral within an hour of being posted thanks to Freehling’s robotic dance style, amassing a whopping 355,000 views, 38,000 likes and almost 2,000 comments in total.

Most of the comments referred to Freehling, who became known as “Yellow Shirt Guy,” because of his sartorial choice on Sept. 21st.

Freehling does not frequent TikTok online, so he had no idea he was a social media star until informed by his young peers.

“I don’t like to be famous,” he said. “I guess it was my sweet dance moves.”

Freehling plans to travel with his wife, Mary Ann, relax, and get things done around the house after retirement.

“I want to get the yard in decent shape,” Freehling said, “and I want to clean out the garage.”

Freehling also worked at the Pantagraph in Bloomington, Ill., the Houston Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune before accepting his position at the Eagle in January 2012.

He graduated from Knoch High School in 1975 and Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1979.