Robert Kimble Dennis, a prize-winning newspaper reporter and public relations executive, died Wednesday, January 7, 2015. Mr. Dennis was born in Syracuse, NY, on March 21, 1928, and grew up in Binghamton, NY, the only child of Clarence Kimble Dennis and Esther King Dennis.
Mr. Dennis retired in 1986 from The Charlotte Observer after 24 years of service. He was a principal reporter on the Observer’s weeklong series of articles, “Brown Lung: A Case of Deadly Neglect,” which won the 1981 Pulitzer Gold Prize for Meritorious Public Service. The series also was awarded The Robert F. Kennedy Grand Prize and the Roy W. Howard Public Service Award from the Scripps-Howard Foundation. The series documented the debilitating effects on the health of textile workers from breathing cotton dust. The series also won the 1981 George Polk Award from Long Island University and the top N.C. Press Association award.
At The Observer Mr. Dennis served as Rock Hill bureau chief and in Charlotte as business writer, assistant state editor, assistant metro editor, and state editor. As a reporter Mr. Dennis broke the national story of the historic settlement of the bitter 20-year struggle of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union of America to organize the J.P. Stevens Co., the nation’s second largest textile manufacturer.
In 1971 The Observer assigned Mr. Dennis to accompany an 82nd Airborne battalion overseas and report and photograph the unit’s 10-day high-level military and diplomatic mission to South Korea. The Ft. Bragg unit was dispatched to ease South Korea’s concerns over U.S. ability to respond quickly to tensions arising over North Korea’s intentions.
As a newspaperman he found writing his greatest pleasure. On a story about the fight of North Charleston (SC) to become a city, Mr. Dennis wrote, “Down where the Ashley and Cooper rivers meet to form the Atlantic Ocean, in and around the Holy City where Congressman Mendel Rivers is patron saint, where secession began and never really ended, men of strong persuasion are battling over a matter of civic destiny.” And there was the arrival of political celebrity Marietta Tree in Rock Hill. As Mr. Dennis reported, “This is the greatest time for educated women.” ‘So said Marietta Tree, who came to Winthrop College Tuesday night with a lynx coat, a bright lime dress, a patrician feminism and an air of unshatterable poise.”
After his newspaper career Mr. Dennis spent 10 years as a public relations executive with Epley Associates of Charlotte. He specialized in media relations and environmental issues for large manufacturers including tobacco and chemical corporations, major oil companies, rural electric co-ops and national and regional trucking companies.
Mr. Dennis was a faculty member of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce Environmental School, 1989, 1990, 1992. He also served a guest speaker at the Gravure Association of America, New Orleans 1991 and St. Louis 1993; for the Carolinas Air Pollution Control Association, Myrtle Beach, SC, 1992, and Hickory, NC, 1993.
Mr. Dennis was an honor graduate of Binghamton Central High School. He attended Hamilton College, Clinton, NY, where he was a member of Chi Psi Fraternity. He was graduated from Syracuse University with a cum laude degree in economics.
Mr. Dennis is survived by two daughters, Pamela Dennis Silverman, Albany, NY; Darby King Dennis, Missouri City, TX; three sons, Robert K. Dennis Jr., Endwell, NY; Payson Bullard Dennis, Montpelier, VT: and Christopher King Dennis, New York, NY; four grandchildren, Staff Sgt. Justin Blewitt, Army Golden Knights, Ft. Bragg, NC; Jonathan Blewitt, Reynoldsburg, OH; Max Silverman (U.S. Marines Ret.), Nashville, TN; Rachel Silverman, Albany, NY.
A service to celebrate the life of Mr. Dennis will be held at 1:00 p.m. Sunday, January 11 in Harry & Bryant’s “Chapel in the Oaks”, 500 Providence Road. His family will receive friends at the funeral home following the service.
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