Dirk Langeveld, Patch Staff

Email: Dirk.Langeveld@patch.com

Phone: 860-276-7478

Hometown: Lanesborough, Mass.

Birthday: Sept. 27

Dirk has always made his home in the oft-frozen northern parts of country, alternating between sleepy rural areas and the city life. He grew up in a small town near the western border of Massachusetts, where he set out to explore every inch of the wilderness around his home.

He went to Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and wrote and drew political cartoons for the campus newspaper for three years. He graduated in 2006 with a major in history and a minor in English. He worked for three-and-a-half years as a general assignment reporter in the Norway, Maine bureau of the Lewiston Sun Journal, a daily newspaper. He was named in an award for coverage of a fatal boating collision, kept close tabs on an ever-turbulent municipal government, and covered three multiple homicide cases. Other stories saw him strolling through a three-day music festival, whitewater rafting down the Dead River, and plummeting out of an airplane.

He moved to New London in September of 2010 to begin working for the New London Patch.

Dirk has been running, bicycling, hiking, and cross-country skiing with varying degrees of devotion for several years now. He's also a bit of a bookworm; one of the first things he did when he got into town was get a library card and check out a biography. In his spare time, he might well be contributing to a blog on political scandals throughout United States history or another more esoteric blog whose topics include creepy animals, state quarters, and robots. He's looking forward to hearing from you and becoming part of the New London community!

Your Beliefs

At Patch, we promise always to report the facts as objectively as possible and otherwise adhere to the principles of good journalism. However, we also acknowledge that true impartiality is impossible because human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal their beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable. This disclosure is not a license for you to inject your beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that your beliefs are on the record will cause you to be ever mindful to write, report and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you ever see evidence that we failed in this mission, please let us know.

Politics: I'm a social liberal, though I'm trending toward the center on plenty of issues. I'm not a big fan of the extremes on either the right or the left.

Religion: I sporadically attend the First Congregational Church of New London. However, my Facebook page lists my religion as "Saganism" after Carl Sagan, who was blase about religion but gave one of the best reflections on humanity and the universe with his "Pale Blue Dot" speech.