It’s hard to imagine a better person to write the centennial history of the Port of Port Townsend than Scott Wilson. He knows his way around the town and the port, and the relationship between the two, because that was his job for decades. Wilson was owner and publisher of The Leader for 30 years before he and wife Jennifer James-Wilson sold it to the current owners in 2016.

I was literally — and here I am using the literal meaning of that word — looking for a book like “Working Port: 100 years of the Port of Port Townsend.” It has served as primary text for my port history 101 class, which mightily undersells it. It’s proof that a copiously researched history book can be readable and even fun. (See review on B4.)

The upcoming release of the book by its publisher, the Port of Port Townsend, led to a personal introduction to Wilson. I was already curious about him, given how often his name has come up in a short period of time. This isn’t surprising, since I’m the newest member of The Leader family, and the Wilsons’ DNA is throughout the bound volumes of the paper that has served as other trusty educational fodder.

What has been surprising is the mostly beloved tones that accompany his name when it comes up. That isn’t something safely assumed, given the nature of the job he had for so long. That people are as impassioned about The Leader as they are today has a lot to do with the Wilsons. They built the paper over those years, cresting to a high of 24 employees, about a third of whom were in the newsroom.

The Wilsons knew when it was time for them to move on, and that it would mean selling the paper. That’s not an easy thing, not for the owners, and not for a community that had come to rely upon its paper.

What some folks might not have known at the time was how the process played out. Because the Wilsons didn’t open the door to all potential buyers.

They never considered the investment firms gobbling up newspapers to lay off employees and sell assets, leaving sad shells of often storied institutions so they could reap profits. But the next tier down — firms that while less cynical, perhaps, were nonetheless focused on the bottom line with little-to-no concern for the journalism produced — were also out of the running. The Wilsons sought out buyers who would be present, and active, in running the paper.

“The most important thing — number one — was that they were in the business, and not a vanity project for someone,” said Scott Wilson. “Number two was that it was somebody who would live in the community.”

That’s huge. I write that as someone who has seen money overcome the senses of formerly solid stewards of good newsrooms. And as someone who worked in the newsroom of a company with headquarters offices a thousand miles away. In that case they had no idea what was happening with content and by all appearances could not have cared less.

The Wilsons remain rooted in Port Townsend. Jennifer James-Wilson serves on the school board of the Port Townsend School District. Scott Wilson serves on the board of Centrum, in addition to his contract with the port to manage some of its communications. That includes some marketing, overseeing its quarterly publication, and writing the book, Working Port.

Wilson said he also spends a fair amount of time in an engine room. A few months after the Wilsons sold The Leader, they purchased a 42-foot Grand Banks. The 50-year-old, long-distance trawler, “Scout,” has taken them to Alaska and on other cruising and fishing adventures. It will again this year, too.