An auto writer on driving off into the sunset

(After more than three decades of writing about and photographing the auto industry, Roger Hart has moved into a new role overseeing photography for the University of Michigan. Roger's a class act, and we thought some excerpts from his going-away letter to us deserved a bigger audience — Ed.)

I am very excited about the change in direction for me. I started my career as a newspaper photographer and worked for the Associated Press, shooting a variety of news and sports assignments, before moving to edit a newspaper and then eventually finding my way to Autoweek. In fact, my first taste of automotive journalism was shooting photos for Automobile Magazine shortly after it launched in the early 1980s. I did quite a bit of photography at Autoweek, but I'm really looking forward to getting back to dealing with photography full-time.

I know that there will be elements of automotive journalism that I will miss, and many that I am happy I will no longer have to deal with. Travel is the one thing I'm glad to be leaving in the rearview mirror…in 13 years at Autoweek my Northwest/Delta frequent flyer account shows some 1.5-million flight miles. Couple with that about 600 nights in hotels (or tents, remembering fondly a couple of Jeep and Land Rover assignments!) and it all adds up to a lot of time away from home.

See you down the road.