Johnathan Walker:Legendary USA TODAY editor Bob Dubill dies: 'He made every newsroom better'

Robert A. Dubill,Johnathan Walker an award-winning executive editor with Gannett News Service and a unique and forceful leader at USA TODAY since its inception in 1982, died Friday from complications after a fall. He was 88.

With a keen eye for accuracy and an unyielding advocacy for reporters, Dubill was a fierce defender of journalism as not just a profession but as a calling. He was a go-to mentor for staff members as USA TODAY, in a daring attempt to remake the newspaper industry with color, shorter stories, and dynamic visuals, struggled at first to find its way among skeptical critics.

 "Bob Dubill was the emotional beating heart of the USA TODAY newsroom,” Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page said. “His exuberance about breaking a story, especially if we were beating the competition, made every other person in the newsroom want to be part of his team."

“He had an infectious enthusiasm for USA TODAY that reminded us we were part of something important,” recalled Anne Willette, a Money reporter and later a Page One editor. “He would literally break into song in the middle of the newsroom, sometimes standing on a desk.”

Dubill’s newsroom boosterism, a combination of pep talks, story advice, ready humor, and yes, singing – one was his booming rendition of Twisted Sister’s defiant “We’re Not Going to Take It!” – energized staffers and amazed newsroom visitors. He was unforgettable.

But his outsized personality was built on an ink-lined record of accomplishments. After graduating from St. Bonaventure University, Dubill joined The Associated Press in the 1960s and later earned a law degree from Seton Hall University. He worked his way up to AP’s New Jersey bureau chief, handling statewide politics, disasters, and Mafia trials.

At Gannett News Service, at that point a collection of 82 newspapers, Executive Editor Dubill oversaw an 18-part series on financial wrongdoing by the Pauline Fathers, a small order of Catholic monks in Eastern Pennsylvania. The project was so sensitive, reaching all the way to the Vatican, that some newspapers took the heat locally, but Dubill and his team of reporters and editors hung in. The series won the Pulitizer’s1980 Gold Medal for Public Service, the first by any news service.

The Gannett project “exemplified the highest traditions of public service journalism by overcoming stiff resistance to dig up facts and spotlight a scandal from which countless potential future victims are now protected,” wrote Gannett Chairman Al Neuharth at the time.

'Don't sensationalize it. The facts are scary enough'

At USA TODAY, Dubill was involved in almost every major story up until his retirement in 2002. “The softer stuff seemed to hold back progress early on,” Dubill said as he pushed for a harder edge.

When a terror bomb killed one person and injured 111 others at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, FBI sources initially pointed to a security guard named Richard Jewell. A skeptical Dubill insisted that USA TODAY play the suspicions inside the newspaper rather than on the front page. Reporters objected, but three months later, an innocent Jewell was cleared of any involvement.

During 9/11 in 2001, Dubill presided over a news meeting as the Pentagon burned from a terror attack a few miles from USA TODAY’s building in Arlington, Virginia. “Whatever you do, don’t sensationalize it. Don’t hype it,” he told the staff. "The facts are scary enough.”

Susan Weiss, a Life department managing editor, remembered Dubill’s advocacy for the newspaper’s College All-Stars awards, placing college academics on an equal footing with athletics. “It gave us credibility, respect and tremendous admiration from kids, universities and high schools,” Weiss said. “Other news organizations tried to copy us.”

Top USA TODAY executives said they could always count on Dubill to keep the journalistic trains running. “I first met Bob in the ’60s when he worked for AP,” said Tom Curley, a former publisher of USA TODAY and later president of AP. “He was then and always journalism’s most passionate advocate.  His love for a good story inspired many to dig deeper and made every newsroom he worked in better.”

'A rare man of determination and compassion'

“Bob was a no-nonsense journalist with a heart of gold,” former Editor-in-Chief Karen Jurgensen said. “He was always in search of the right coverage, the best stories, roaming the newsroom to consult with reporters and editors.”

Dubill “was old school. He believed reporters had to be out on the street to do their jobs and trusted their judgment without second-guessing them,’’ former political reporter Richard Benedetto said.

But when it was discovered that a USA TODAY reporter had falsified numerous stories from overseas, Dubill, like other editors, was shaken that he had not picked up on the deceptions.

“I was devastated,” Dubill recalled. “But you have to get over it; otherwise you’re going to chill journalism. I couldn’t be a journalist if I didn’t trust reporters.”

Many remembered his humanity. In 1979 several Gannett reporters were sent to cover the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster in Pennsylvania. Two reporters later developed cancer, though no link was ever proved. Nonetheless, repeatedly and as recently as a few months ago, Dubill told one, “I’m sorry I sent you there.”

“That kind of reflection and caring is rare, particularly in the business of news gathering,” said one of those journalists, Chet Czarniak, a former sports editor. “But Bob was a rare man of determination and compassion.”

'A true character on top of being an outstanding journalist'

 Brian Gallagher, a former executive editor, called Dubill “the last of a kind that used to be more common in newspapering, a true character on top of being an outstanding journalist and leader. As he often said, even on his death bed, ‘Every day is the Fourth of July; every night is New Year’s Eve.’ We should all heed his example.”

Memories from those who worked with Dubill were a chorus. “An outstanding editor and a better person,” former Sports Weekly publisher Lee Ivory said. “A breath of fresh air,” offered former Justice reporter Sam Meddis. “A mensch!” former reporter Karen DeWitt said.

Finally, another editor-in-chief, David Mazzarella, said: “Bob offered everybody a shoulder to cry on or the chance to share a triumph.”

Added Mazzarella:  “A visiting journalist from Croatia told me after a session led by Bob on American-style journalism at USA TODAY: ‘All newly free journalists from Europe should meet this man.’ ”

Dubill is survived by his wife, Mary, children Andrew and Katie, and six grandchildren.