Meet The Sports Writers

[botolph]

Fred Jones - Sportswriter - Porstmouth, NH

Hello, I'm looking for some info on Fred Jones, a writer on the Portsmouth (NH) Herald from 1935-1941. I found an article that implied that he left the profession in 1941. I don't know if he ever got back to it or not.

Anyone know anything about him?

[Bill Burgess]

Earl Felix Selby

Born: September 29, 1917, Chicago, IL
Died: February 23, 2000, Carmel Valley, CA, age 82,---d. auto accident

City editor;
Chicago, IL, 3-year old, (1920 census)
Chicago, IL, 12-year old, (April 11, 1930 census)
Chicago, IL, Laundry man, Laudry shop, (April 6, 1940 census)
Graduated Northwestern University, (summa cum laude), (Economics, 1939)
United Press
Esquire
Coronet
Sun magazine
Philadelphia Bulletin, reporter, 1942 - 1954, columnist, 1954 - 1959, city editor, 1959 - 1964
Reader's Digest, roving editor, 1966 - 1985

Father: Felix; Mother: Hilda Johnson, born Sweden, 1881?; Wife: Miriam; Daughter, Dorothy, Son: Peter; Son: Nicholas;

Philadelphia Inquirer obituary, February 26, 2000, pp. C13.
EARL SELBY, 82, FORMER BULLETIN CITY EDITOR, by Stuart L. Ditzen
When Mr. Selby fell out of favor during a power struggle among top editors at the Bulletin in 1964, managing editor William B. Dickinson gave him the choice of resigning or being fired.

Mr. Selby said he would rather be fired.

His son, Nicholas, of Palo Alto, said yesterday that the decision was characteristic of his father - a tough man through and through, who did not dress up unpleasant events with ribbons and bows.

From 1954 to 1959, Mr. Selby wrote a hard-hitting daily column, "In Our Town."

A story in The Inquirer reporting Mr. Selby's firing in 1964 described his column as follows:

"His was not a gossip column of trivialities. It became an efficient, cold and often cruel medium of exposure, mainly of persons in civic and public life."

He believed the newspaper's job was to closely scrutinize the conduct of public officials, and he used his column to do it.

Later, as city editor, he continued his bent for investigative journalism.

In 1963, Mr. Selby and the Bulletin's publisher, Robert Taylor, were held in contempt of court for refusing to divulge sources for reports on corruption within the city Democratic Party. The state Supreme Court eventually nullified the contempt citations.

Under Mr. Selby's direction as city editor, the Bulletin won a Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for stories on police corruption.

While working full-time as city editor from 1959 to 1964, Mr. Selby used his spare time to write scripts for NFL Films.

After leaving the Bulletin, he worked for Reader's Digest as a roving editor from 1966 to 1985. When working on stories for Reader's Digest, he often flew his own plane, a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza, on assignments.

In 1971, Mr. Selby and his wife, Miriam, published a book, Odyssey - A Journey Through Black America, based on three years of interviews with African Americans around the United States.

Described by his son as a "workaholic of the first stripe," Mr. Selby never retired. In his later years, he became an avid, self-taught computer buff and started writing reports on computer software. In 1991, at 73, he became editor of a Monterey-based tabloid newspaper called PC Paper that covered developments in computer technology. He was on his way to work at the paper, after covering a computer show in Las Vegas, when he was killed.

Mr. Selby grew up in Chicago and worked his way through Northwestern University.

He is survived by his wife; a daughter, Dorothy Counselman, of Chicago; another son, Peter, of Topeka, Kan.; a stepson, W.B. Kimball, of Houston; and four grandchildren.

Services will be tomorrow in Carmel.
Credit: Stuart L. Ditzen, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

[Bill Burgess]

Thomas C. Caton---AKA Tom Caton

Born: August 1, 1913, Holt County, Kansas
Died: July 11, 1991, Mound City, MO, age 77

City Editor;
Los Angeles, CA, 6-year old, (January 16, 1920 census)
Los Angeles, CA, 17-year old, (April 5, 1930 census)
Los Angeles, newspaper reporter, (April 18, 1940 census)
Los Angeles Times,
Portland Oregonian, reporter, August 1, 1947?
Spokane Chronicle,
Los Angeles Herald-Express, assistant city editor, 1948 - November 9, 1956?, executive city editor, November 5, 1964 - ?
Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, city editor, November 5, 1975

Mother: Isabel G., born Kansas, around 1886; Wife: Lee E., born Panama, around 1915;

[Bill Burgess]

Harvey William Schwandner

Born: December 22, 1908, Brillion, Wisconsin
Died: June 16, 1988, Thiensville, WI, age 79,---d. Columbia Hospital

City editor;
Attended Lawrence College (Appleton, WI), 1930
Brillion News, printer's devil,
Brillion, WI, 1-year old, (April 26, 1910 census)
Brillion, WI, 11-year old, (January 5, 1920 census)
Milwaukee, WI, aprentice, Lithograph shop, (April 19, 1930 census)(listed Harvey Schwabenlander)
Milwaukee, WI, newspaper reporter, (April 8, 1940 census)
New Holstein Republic (New Holstein, WI), editor
Milwaukee Journal, reporter, April 14, 1930 - 1946, city editor, 1946 - 1959, assistant managing editor, 1959 - 1962
Milwaukee Sentinel, executive editor, July 23, 1962 - 1966, editor, 1966 - 1975

Father: August J., born Wisconsin, around 1883; Mother: Elizabeth M., (Lizzie), born Wisconsin, around 1886; Wife: Geraldine, born Wisconsin, around 1909; Son: Gary, born Wisconsin, around 1933; Daughter: Elaine Hoth; Daughter: Judith Vogel, born Wisconsin, around 1936;

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1930 Lawrence College yearbook.

[Bill Burgess]

Matthew P. Paul

Born: April 10, 1978,
Died: Still alive

City Editor;
Graduated University of Maine, May, 2003 (B. A. Journalism)
Maine Campus, city editor,
Bangor Daily News,

Matthew Paul of Bangor has been hired as a copy editor. Paul graduated from the University of Maine in mid-May with a bachelor of arts degree in journalism. In addition to working as a sports intern at the News from 1997-99, he served as city editor of The Maine Campus during his senior year. He has also worked as a sports writer for the Katahdin Times in Millinocket. According to his Facebook page, Matt currently lives in Westbrook, Maine and is married to Catherine Guinon Paul. He works at Delhaize America.

[Bill Burgess]

Sir Patrick John Rushton Sergeant

Born: March 17, 1924, Surrey / Kent County, England
Died: Still Alive

City editor;
Daily Mail, city editor, 1960 - 1984
Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC, managing editor, 1969 - 1985
Chairman of Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC, 1985 - September, 1992
Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC, President, September, 1992

Mother's maiden name: Rushton

Sir. Patrick Sergeant has been the President of Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC since September 1992. Sir Sergeant founded Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC in 1969 and served as its Managing Director until 1985. Sir Sergeant was City Editor of the Daily Mail from 1960 to 1984. He served as the Chairman of Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC, a subsidiary of Daily Mail & General Trust PLC. from 1985 to September 1992. He has been a Non Executive Director Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC since September 1992. Sir Sergeant served as a Non Executive Director of Daily Mail and General Trust PLC from 1983 to February 4, 2004.

Career
Lt RNVR 1945; asst city ed News Chronicle 1948, city ed Daily Mail 1960-84 (dep city ed 1953), fndr and md Euromoney Publications 1969-85 (chm 1985-92, pres 1992-); dir: Associated Newspapers Group 1971-83, Daily Mail and Gen Tst 1983-2003; Wincott Award Financial Journalist of the Year 1979; Freeman City of London; Domus fell St Catherine's Coll Oxford 1988; FRSA

[Bill Burgess]

Henry Ward Nichols--- AKA Harry Nichols

Born: September 23, 1896, Brooklyn, NY
Deid: December 18, 1971, New York, NY, age 75,---d. Belevue Hospital.

City Editor;
Brooklyn, NY, 3-year old, (June 8, 1900 census)
Brooklyn, NY, 13-year old, (April 26, 1910 census)
Brooklyn, reporter, newspaper, (January 7, 1920 census)
Queens, NY, city editor, newspaper, (April 26, 1930 census)(listed Henry)
Queens, NY, editor, newspaper, (April 18, 1940 census)(listed Henry W.)
New York American, office boy, 1911 -
US Army, WWI, (Sergeant-Major)(France),
New York American, (June 5, 1918, WWI Civilian Draft Registration)
International News Service,
New York Daily News, assistant night city editor, 1922 - May, 1946, city editor, September 17, 1946 - December 31, 1969

Father: Alfred T, born England, October, 1848 (immigrated US, 1879); Mother: Emily, born England, August, 1864 (immigrated US, 1872; Wife: Anna, born New York, 1888?; Daughter: Marylyn, born New York, 1931?;

[Bill Burgess]

Howard M. Ziff

Born: December 30, 1930, Holyoke, MA
Died: April 10, 2012, Amherst, MA, age 81,---d. heart failure, in the Hospice at Fisher House in Amherst, MA

City editor;
Amherst College (Amherst, MA), 1951, (Philosophy)
Chicago Daily News, reporter, editor,
University of Massachusetts (Amherst, MA), city editor,

Howard Ziff, 81, taught journalism at UMass Amherst, By Bryan Marquard | GLOBE STAFF APRIL 12, 2012
Culling lessons from his own newspaper experience, Howard Ziff taught a generation of students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst the craft of journalism and, not incidentally, how to reach for lives as riveting as his celebrated classes.

“He was on stage in the classroom,’’ said Larry Carpman, a former student of Mr. Ziff’s who now runs Carpman Communications in Boston. “He had this incredible ability to teach not just the mechanics of journalism, but the benefits of having passion in life. If passion can be taught, he knew how to do it.’’

Four decades ago, Mr. Ziff returned from Illinois to his home state to build the university’s journalism program. A childhood in Holyoke, an education at Amherst College, and invaluable experience as a reporter and editor at the Chicago Daily News combined to make him the most charismatic and electric professor most students encountered.

Mr. Ziff, whose former students fill newsrooms across the country, died of heart failure Tuesday in the Hospice at Fisher House in Amherst. He was 81 and had lived in Amherst for many years.

“He was able to combine the grit and the bustle of the streets with a strong interest in literature and philosophy and history,’’ said Ralph Whitehead Jr., a longtime friend and journalism professor at UMass Amherst who invoked the name of a legendary writer for The New Yorker magazine to measure Mr. Ziff’s range.

“If I were to name a journalist whose own work captured the spirit of Howard’s teaching,’’ Whitehead said, “it would have been A.J. Liebling, someone who moved back and forth easily between the pool hall and the reading room of the library.’’

During his days at Amherst College, Mr. Ziff studied with poet Robert Frost. In Chicago, at the City News Bureau and then at the Chicago Daily News, one of Mr. Ziff’s friends and colleagues was columnist Mike Royko.

At times it was as though Mr. Ziff demanded the best of Royko and Frost from aspiring journalists, newspaper work that was at once soaring and fierce.

“Howard was part Chicago precinct captain and part Amherst College philosophy professor,’’ Norman Simms, whom Mr. Ziff hired to teach at UMass Amherst, told B.J. Roche in 1998 for a UMass Magazine profile of Mr. Ziff, occasioned by his retirement.

Mr. Ziff majored in philosophy at Amherst College, a background that could be seen in everything from his journalism ethics courses to the way he mused about the business.

Ultimately, though, words and sentences mattered most, regardless of the technology used to deliver the news.

“I don’t think that good writing will ever go away,’’ Mr. Ziff said in the UMass Magazine profile. “That’s impossible. You’ve got to think and reflect, and you don’t know what you think until you’ve written it.’’

Mr. Ziff was born in Holyoke, the youngest of three children whose father owned a curtain company. Even when he was young, Mr. Ziff’s prodigious memory drew notice.

“He had an amazing ear,’’ said his daughter, Ellen of Amsterdam. “He thought the point was to memorize everything on the page, and he remembered everything. When he had his bar mitzvah, they gave him jazz records and they gave him opera records. He could recognize the nationality of an orchestra by its sound. In his jazz phase, he could tell you what session it was.’’

That ear was just as valuable when he became a journalist.

“He could listen to what people said in ways not everybody could do,’’ his daughter said.

After graduating from Amherst College in 1951, he went to Columbia University in New York City briefly for graduate work in philosophy, but left because he did not like the direction his academic discipline was taking in those years.

Drafted into the US Army, he caught the end of the Korean War as a writer for the Stars and Stripes military newspaper. Assignments could be dangerous, but so was what lay ahead.

“He told his students that he was shot at two times in Korea and three times in Chicago when he was reporting,’’ his daughter said.

After the Army, Mr. Ziff went to Chicago, where his brother was a student at the University of Chicago. So was Jane Flanders, whom he met through his brother’s circle of acquaintances. They married in 1957.

“My dad loved my mother so much,’’ said their daughter, who recalled one time when she glanced at her father’s face as he watched his wife sing an alto solo during a concert. “I was so moved by seeing how much he loved her, just watching her sing.’’

Mr. Ziff left Chicago in the late 1960s to teach at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A couple of years later, UMass Amherst recruited him to build a journalism department.

A big guy with an even bigger mind, “he was physically imposing, had a bushy beard, and sometimes wore a pipe, so to speak,’’ Whitehead said. “He had a lot of real world savvy, but he had also acquired a lot of erudition, although he wore it pretty lightly.’’

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Ziff leaves a son, Donald of El Cerrito, Calif.; a brother, Larzer of Baltimore; four grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.

The family will receive guests at the Ziffs’ Amherst home Friday at 2 p.m., with an informal Kaddish beginning at 4 p.m.

A memorial service will be held at noon July 22 in Memorial Hall at UMass Amherst.

Mr. Ziff “was more than a teacher of journalism, to many, many students,’’ Carpman said.

“He didn’t simply teach generations of students in the newsroom at the Chicago Daily News, at the University of Illinois, and then here at UMass Amherst; he was also an example of what they could be,’’ Whitehead said. “None of us could be all the things that he was, but a lot of us could be a few of those things, at least with his inspiration.’’

[Bill Burgess]

William Harllee Branch, Sr.---AKA Harllee Branch

Born: December 24, 1879, Polkton, NC
Died: March 15, 1967, Atlanta, GA, age 81,---in Atlanta, GA.

City Editor;
Charleston Evening Post, 1897, comoposing room foreman,
Tampa Tribune (FL),
Augusta Herald (GA),
Atlanta Journal, proof-reader, 1903 - ?, reporter, city editor, (He was made the Journal's Washington correspondent in 1928.)
Polkton, NC, 6-month old, (June 17, 1880 census)
Atlanta, GA, daily newspaper, reporter, (April , 1910 census)
Atlanta, GA, newspaper editor, (January 10, 1920 census)
Atlanta, GA, newspaper correspondent, (April 14, 1930 census)
Washington, DC, Vice-Chairman, Civil Aeronautics, (April 2, 1940 census)

Father: J. G., born North Carolina, around 1853; Mother: Harriet, born North Carolina; Wife: Bernice J. Simpson, born South Carolina, around 1882, died 1966; Harllee married Bernice in 1901; Son: Harllee, Jr.; Son: John E.; Son: James A.; Daughter: Mrs. Wilbur King; Daughter: Mrs. Donald A. Leslie; Daughter: Mrs. Marlon D. Seaborn.


Charleston News and Courier (SC) obituary, Saturday, March 18, 1967, pp. 9A.


September 1, 1938, Washington, DC: L-R: Harllee Branch, Sr., Grant Mason, Edward J. Noble, Robert Hinckley, Clinton M. Hester, Oswald Ryan.

[Bill Burgess]

James Sanders Carnahan---AKA Jimmy Carnahan

Born: June 15, 1930, Murfreesboro, TN
Died: July 1, 2003, Nashville, TN, age 73,---d. of injuries suffered from falling off a ladder at his home.

City editor;
Murfreesboro City, TN, 9-year old, (May 14, 1940 census)
Nashville Tennessean, part-time correspondent / photographer, 1947 - 1965, staff reporter, 1965 - 1968, state editor, 1968 - 1979, night city editor, 1979 - July, 1993, retired.

Father: Wiley Burton, born Tennessee around 1899; Mother: Eulalia Sanders, born Tennessee around 1900; His middle name was his mother's maiden name.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ Jimmy Carnahan, a former state and city editor for The Tennessean newspaper, died Tuesday of injuries suffered after falling off a ladder at his home last Wednesday. He was 73.
Carnahan retired from The Tennessean in July 1993, after a career that spanned six decades. He started at the newspaper in 1947, working as a part-time correspondent and photographer, then became a staff reporter in 1965.

From 1968-79, he was the paper's state editor before taking over as night city editor until his retirement.

In 1990, he retired from the Tennessee Army National Guard, after serving more than 40 years and reaching the rank of chief warrant officer with the guard's 118th Public Affairs Detachment.
He was given the Guard's Distinguished Service Medal. He was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Survivors include a niece and a nephew.

[Bill Burgess]

Robert McElrath Strebeigh---AKA Bob Strebeigh

Born: October 11, 1922, New York, NY
Died: November 13, 2004, Bay Pines, FL, age 82,---d. Veterans' Hospital (St. Petersburg, FL.

City editor;
Attended Lawrence Smith School (NYC)
Graduated Kent School (CT),
New York, NY, 17-year old, (April 19, 1940 census)
Graduated Princeton University, 1947
US Marines, WWII (Pacific sector), (Lieutenant)
San Francisco Chronicle, reporter, ? - 1957, 1964 - 1974
Marin (CA), Independent Journal, city editor,

Father: Robert L. born New York, around 1881; Mother: Catherina, born New York, around 1893; Wife: Mary Lee Tilden; divorced in 1963; Daughter: Katherine; Son: T. Lee; Son: Thomas; Son: Peter;

San Francisco Chronicle obituary, Thursday, November 25, 2004, by Carl Nolte
Robert Strebeigh -- newspaperman,
Robert M. Strebeigh, a former Bay Area reporter, editor and yachtsman known for his aristocratic style, died in a veterans' hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Nov. 13 at the age of 82.

He was a man of many parts: a socialite, a Marine combat veteran, a poet, an entrepreneur, a prize-winning newspaper reporter and an autocratic city editor who could reprimand errant writers with rapierlike wit.

Robert McElrath Strebeigh, who was called "Robin" by his friends, was a fifth-generation New Yorker, born in the city in 1922. He attended Lawrence Smith School in New York City, and graduated with honors from Kent School in Connecticut. He entered Princeton University but left college to join the Marine Corps during World War II.

Mr. Strebeigh seldom talked about his combat experiences in the Pacific; he preferred instead to regale listeners with stories of how he wrote love letters for Marines who had wives and girlfriends back home, but lacked his command of the English language. Mr. Strebeigh himself was a poet.

He was discharged as a lieutenant, and returned to Princeton after the war, graduating in 1947. He then became a banker with the National City Bank in Rio de Janeiro.

However, newspapering was in his blood -- one of his ancestors was a co- founder of the New York Herald -- and he moved to the Bay Area and got a job at The Chronicle as a reporter, mostly on the strength of his pedigree and his charm. He was a natural, as it turned out, and won several prizes for his work.

In 1952, he married Mary Lee Tilden of Piedmont, a sculptor and a member of a prominent East Bay family; Tilden Park is named for a member of the family. The couple had four children, but divorced in 1963.

He left the newspaper business in 1957 and ran his own manufacturing company, but rejoined the paper in 1964 to cover the presidential campaign of that year.

He later joined the Marin Independent Journal as a city editor. He presided over the newspaper's austere city room in San Rafael, admonishing and directing his reporters like a baron. "He had exacting standards, and knew just want he wanted," said James Brewer, now an editor at The Chronicle but then a rookie reporter at the Independent Journal. "He had a biting sense of humor, and his wit was so sharp that when he was chewing someone out, you knew everyone was listening."

Mr. Strebeigh wore a bow tie every day, and his desk was in front of a bank of clattering teletype machines, recalled Erik Ingram, a Chronicle editor who also worked for Mr. Strebeigh in Marin. "He was always on stage in the newsroom," Ingram said. "He was also a damn fine editor and newsroom mentor."

It was clear that Mr. Strebeigh was a cut above the scruffy reporters of those days: His home was the classic 75-foot motor yacht La Jota, docked at the Sausalito Yacht Harbor. He lived aboard with his twin brother, Woody, and entertained in the grand manner. The La Jota, which was painted a glistening white and had the charm of another era, always had a prominent place in the parade along the San Francisco waterfront on opening day of the yacht season.

Mr. Strebeigh left the Independent Journal in 1974 to pursue writing but continued to live aboard the La Jota. He and his brother eventually sold the boat and obtained a motor home and toured America, finally settling down in Florida.

He then went into the real estate business and became an executive with a large candy firm. He retired on his 80th birthday in 2002, to play chess, to garden and to compile 60 years worth of poetry he had written.
He is survived by his brother, Woody, of St. Petersburg; a daughter, Katherine Strebeigh of St. Petersburg; three sons, T. Lee Strebeigh of Colorado Springs, Thomas Strebeigh of St. Petersburg and Peter Strebeigh of Redding; and a grandson.

Funeral services have been held.

[Bill Burgess]

Alfred Pierce Reck---AKA Al Reck

Born: June 25, 1897, Piqua, OH
Died: April 18, 1967, Alemeda, CA, age 69,

Washington / Oakland city editor;
Piqua, OH, 2-year old, (June 5, 1900 census)
Piqua, OH, 12-year old, (April 22, 1910 census)
Piqua, OH, newspaper, reporter, (January 2, 1920 census)
Washington, DC, newspaper, writer, (April 12, 1930 census)
Oakland, CA, newspaper, editor, (April 18, 1940 census)
Private secretary to Congressman, 1922
Washington Daily News, 1933
Oakland Tribune, city editor, 1936 - 1958

Father: Charles L. Reck, born Greenville, OH, April, 1863; Mother: Nina Beck, born Ohio, April, 1869; Wife 1: Daisy D., born Minnesota, 1905?; Son: Michael P., born District of Columbia, 1929?; Wife 2: Patricia C., born Utah, 1908?;

When Al Reck worked for the Oakland Tribune, it was owned by the family of California's Senator William F. Knowland, a right winger.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------1922 passport photo.

Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), Thursday, December 20, 1990, pp. 7B.


Oakland Tribune obituary, Tuesday, April 18, 1967, pp. 6.

[Bill Burgess]

James Joseph Tuite, Jr.

Born: March 22, 1921, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY
Died: February 9, 2012, Ridge, (Long Island), NY, age 90

New York sports editor;
Brooklyn, NY, 9-year old, (April 4, 1930 census)
Brooklyn, NY, 19-year old, Greenpoint Weekly paper, editor, (April 2, 1940 census)
US Army, 1943 - 1946
New York Times, sports editor, 1948 - ?

Father: James Joseph, Sr., born New York around 1895; Mother: Eleanor, born New York around 1895; Wife: Margaret A.; Son: James III; Daughter: Virginia Roth; Son: Robert; Son: Kevin; Son: John;

New York Times' obituary, February 29, 2012
TUITE-James J. Past Sports Editor at The New York Times. Born March 22, 1921 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn to Irish parents James and Eleanor. Jim was one of two children. His father was a New York City Fireman who was cited several time for heroic deeds.

As a young man Jim's interests were not of school and study so he left school in his senior year to follow his dream. At the age of sixteen and for the next six years he was the sports editor and feature writer of the Greenpoint Weekly Star. Like most young men of his time he found himself serving in the US Army from 1943 to 1946.

As a staff Sergeant in the infantry he earned a President Unit Citation for action in France in 1945. Writing was in his blood and when he wasn't earning metals he edited two division newspapers, The Citation (100th Inf. Div) and the 12th Armored Hellcat. After completing his military commitment in 1948 he became the founding editor of The Catholic War Veteran and sports copy editor of the Providence Journal.

He moved to Roslyn in 1948, and began his 36 year career at the New York Times. He started at the Sports Copy desk, then moved over the years to National News, Times photo editor, and finishing as the Sport Editor. During those years he wrote thousands of feature stories that appeared not only in the Times but also in national magazines. He was the president of the New York Times 30-year club and received the Deadline Club (Sigma Delta Chi) award for investigative reporting.

He also found time to write the first hardcover book on Snowmobiling. Retiring from the Times in 1984 he became the editor of the Roslyn News and founding editor of the Syosset Advance. Although he did not finish high school he received his GED in the Army, and became an adjunct professor of Journalism for NYU at the Brooklyn campus.

Having found a love for horse racing he also became the Public Relations Director for the National Horse show. In 1990, now living in Ridge, he did freelance writing for The Times, Newsday, Dan's Papers. The Journal and weekly sports for the Village Beacon. He worked as an instructor at the Shoreham and Longwood Libraries. Jim and his wife Marge (of 48 years) raised five children who have now given him fourteen grandchildren, twenty seven great-grandchildren and one great-great-granddaughter. My Dad was not only a hero to his Country but a hero to me. At ninety he truly has had a Wonderful Life.

[Bill Burgess]

Francis Vincent Keating---AKA Frank Keating

Born: October 4, 1937, Hereford, Gloucestershire, England
Died: January 25, 2013, age 75---d. Pneumonia, at St. Michael's Hospice, Hereford, England.

British sports writer;
The Guardian, sports writer, 1963 - 1964; 1970 - December, 2012
Rediffusion TV, 1964 - 1968
Thames TV, 1968 - 1970

Figures from across the sporting world have paid tribute to the wit and warmth of Frank Keating, one of Britain's most celebrated sports writers of the past 50 years, who died on Friday at the age of 75.

A fixture in the pages of the Guardian and the Observer across five decades, bar a six-year spell in television in the 1960s, Keating's death sparked a wave of reminiscence and heartfelt tributes.

Sir Ian Botham, the subject of a 1986 book by Keating called High, Wide and Handsome, said he was "a great gentleman". "Frank and I had a great relationship going back to my very early days. He used to come along with that pipe in his top pocket or hanging out of his mouth. He was a loyal friend, through thick and thin. We had a great time. He wrote with a genuine love of sport. He was an infectious writer, he was unique."

Keating joined the Guardian in 1963 as a subeditor, leaving a year later to go into television as editor of outside broadcasts for Rediffusion TV. In 1968 he moved to Thames TV, becoming head of special projects and then news editor. But in 1970, Keating returned and continued to write for the Guardian and its sister paper, the Observer, until December last year.

Bill Beaumont, the Rugby Football Union chairman and former England and Lions captain, said Keating "was an outstanding sports writer with a true understanding of his subject and many friends throughout the sporting world … I always enjoyed reading his articles, which had a great style and exceptional depth of knowledge, and always enjoyed spending an hour or two discussing the game with him."

Amid an outpouring of tributes on Twitter and the internet from friends, colleagues and readers – Piers Morgan called him "truly one of the greatest sportswriters ever" – the former England cricketer David Gower said he had a rare ability to get on with almost anyone: "He was a gentleman and a gentle man. Whimsical, knowledgable, with a lovely turn of phrase. He loved the game, seemed to understand the people who played it and was always very easy to get on with. If one was interviewed by Frank it was a gentle pleasure. There was no sense of interrogation," said Gower. Another former England cricket captain, Graham Gooch, said Keating was "a wonderful writer as well as a great character".

Giles Clarke, the England and Wales Cricket Board chairman, said: "Frank Keating was a great Gloucestershire man and a terrific, lyrical writer. He loved life. Put simply, he went everywhere and wrote beautifully about it. He was a great guy and a great journalist."

The Football Association chairman, David Bernstein, said: "On behalf of the Football Association, I would like to pass on my sincere condolences to the family of Frank Keating. A truly great sports writer, he will be much missed across the football world and beyond. His lasting legacy will be the tremendous pleasure his words brought to so many over half a century."

Many paid tribute to the warmth of his personality and his generous spirit. The former England bowler Bob Willis recalled "dinner parties in Holland Park with copious quantities of red". "He was a marvellous writer, he mixed sentimentality with all that was good in sport. He always looked for the good in everything, never sniping at anybody," he added.

Alan Rusbridger, the editor in chief of the Guardian and Observer, said: "Frank was an immense figure in sports journalism for more than 50 years. He was a unique character, combining sophisticated sporting knowledge with a deep empathy and understanding of the human side of sport. Frank was also universally popular with an inspiring and uplifting personality that was infectious.

"As a writer, Frank deserves to be placed in the very elite of British sports writing in the last century – and amazingly, though ill, was still writing his wonderful weekly column in the Observer up until a few weeks ago. Our thoughts and condolences are with his family at this sad time."

[Bill Burgess]

Brian C. Woolnough

Born: September 30, 1948, Surrey North Western, Walton-on-Thames, England
Died: September 18, 2012, age 63---d. bowel cancer

British sports writer;
Daily Mirror
Daily Star, sports writer, 2001

Brian Woolnough (1948 – 18 September 2012) was a British sports journalist and Chief Sports writer for tabloid the Daily Star.

Previously a writer for The Sun, in 1999 the Daily Mirror tried unsuccessfully to poach him. Woolnough was lured to the Daily Star in 2001 after owner Richard Desmond authorised a £200,000 pay package.
In December 2004, following Norwich City's 4-0 defeat at Chelsea, Woolnough produced a Monday morning column that enraged Norwich fans, saying that City were "gutless," that they would "stink the place out" with Premiership performances of a similar ilk, and that he "Hopes they go down, and good riddance." This instantly turned Woolnaugh into public enemy number 1 in Norwich, and although refusing to withdraw his comments, he later visited Carrow Road after receiving 450 e-mails and the local newspaper getting involved with the debate.

From 2007, Woolnough was the presenter of Sky Sport's Sunday Supplement, replacing Jimmy Hill. Woolnough was previously the presenter of "Hold The Back Page" from 1994.

Woolnough died on 18 September 2012 from bowel cancer. He is survived by his wife Linda and three children.

Gary Lineker described Woolnough as "one of football's finest journalists." Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said that Woolnough was "a good journalist and a good personality."