Julie Brink was one of the best copy editors Annemarie Mountz has ever met.

"But she was so much more than what her job was," Mountz, a Penn State spokeswoman, said of her friend and co-worker.

Brink, 50, died Monday at Mount Nittany Medical Center of complications from pneumonia.

Brink grew up in Irvona in Clearfield County and graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

She started her journalism career at The Progress newspaper in Clearfield before moving to the Centre Daily Times (CDT), where she worked as a features and copy editor for more than 15 years.

That's where Mountz met Brink, more than 20 years ago. When Mountz left the CDT in 1995 to work for the public information office at Penn State, she remembered the person who trained her.

"When we had an opening in the office here, I called her up and said, 'Please apply,' and she did," Mountz said. "She was the unanimous decision to fill the position."

Mountz said Brink joined the public information staff at Penn State in 2000, acting as the associate editor of the faculty/staff newspaper Intercom until it ceased publication in 2005. Mountz said Brink then became responsible for editing and compiling about three dozen online newswires a week.

"She was tireless," Mountz said. "She was a very dedicated, top-quality worker, and she taught everyone so much."

Mountz said Brink also instructed a feature-writing class in the College of Communications.

"We use professionals with outstanding credentials, and she certainly had that," Ford Risley, head of the journalism department, said, "She really cared about the craft of writing, and she instilled that in her students."

Even after leaving her job at the CDT, Brink wrote columns for the newspaper, including her monthly "Centre Life" column.

George Franchock, one of Brink's former classmates at Moshannon Valley High School, said he read her columns often.

"It was interesting to read her stories because we grew up in the same area and knew the same people," Franchock said, recalling her musings on their childhood bus driver, an area candy store and the pies Brink's mother made.

"She provided glimpses of family life in rural Pennsylvania," Franchock said. "Her thoughtful observations will be missed."

Besides writing, Brink loved gardening and books, Mountz said.

She said Brink started the Book Beat page in Sunday's CDT, was a contributor to the WPSU radio book reviews and served on the Friends of the Library board at Schlow Centre Region Library.

Several memories of Brink stand out, but Mountz said one of the most poignant is when Mount Pinatubo, in the Philippines, erupted in 1991, an event Mountz described as creating "some of the most beautiful sunsets." The eruption sent dust particles in the air that went around the world.

Mountz said she and Brink would get up every night while they were working on deadline and go to the windows to watch the sunsets created by the eruption.

"It says something about the kind of person she was. She recognized life isn't all about work," Mountz said.