Robert Andrew Dubill

Robert Dubill, the retired executive editor of USA Today who directed a Pulitzer Prize-winning team while leading Gannett News Service in 1980, died Friday Aug. 23 in Alexandria, Va., from complications of a fall in June. He was 88.

Bob was a proud son of the northeastern Pennsylvania town of Simpson, and an alumnus of the journalism program at St. Bonaventure University (Class of 1958, cum laude). A summer job at the Associated Press bureau in Buffalo led to his being hired by the AP upon graduation for an opening in Spokane, Wash., where he also began studying for a master’s degree in political science at Gonzaga University before the Army drafted him.

After being stationed at Fort Ord, Calif., and a stint in the public information office at Fort Gordon (now Fort Eisenhower) in Augusta, Ga., he returned to the AP in Trenton and Newark, N.J. following his honorable discharge from the service. Bob stayed in New Jersey for a dozen years, rising to State Editor and Bureau Chief, and picking up a law degree at night from Seton Hall University, courtesy of the G.I. Bill.

Bob left the AP in 1976 to join Gannett, first as editor of the Camden Courier-Post, then in 1978 as executive editor of Gannett News Service where the Pulitzer-winning team published an 18-part series exposing a misuse of contributions by the Pauline Fathers, a Roman Catholic order.

He was pressed into service to work on the creation of USA Today in 1982 and rose from national editor to managing editor to executive editor before his retirement in 2002.

Bob loved to walk. He loved to sing. He loved the Washington Nationals, and, before that, the St. Louis Cardinals. He loved rotisserie baseball. He loved the church. And he loved his family.

He is survived by his wife of nearly 52 years, Mary Gordon Dubill, herself a former AP reporter in the Newark bureau where they met in 1969. Also surviving are their son Andrew, daughter-in-law Becky Kline Dubill, and grandchildren Cate and Vee of Winter Park, Fl., and daughter Katie, son-in-law Bryan Bradford, and grandchildren Bobby, Eva Jo, George, and Mary McNamee, of Atlanta. He was predeceased by his parents, Andrew and Mary (Terpak) Dubill of Simpson, Pa., and his twin sister, Mary ann Kalaha of Dickson City, Pa.

A Requiem Mass will be celebrated on Wednesday Sept. 4 at 10:30 a.m. at Holy Trinity Church, 3513 N Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20007.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to The Robert A. Dubill Endowed Scholarship in Journalism, St. Bonaventure University, PO Box 2519, St. Bonaventure, NY 14778. Or please visit www.sbu.edu, click “donate,” followed by “donate to a single purpose,” and designate your gift as such.

Finally, Bob’s family gratefully acknowledges the immense assistance of legendary AP veteran Chris Connell in preparing this notice