Frank Arthur Daniels Jr.

His wife of 68 years, Julia Jones Daniels, was by his side.

Frank was born in Raleigh, at Rex Hospital, to Ruth Aunspaugh Daniels and Frank Arthur Daniels, and into a newspaper family.

He was proud, as he would say, that he was born with “ink in his veins,” and he loved The News and Observer and its role in Raleigh, in North Carolina, and that it was also part of a national industry that was important to preserving and protecting the people and the country they built.

His obituary from the Associated Press said, “During his 26 years as publisher of the paper of record for state politics and government, The N&O became a regional powerhouse for news, especially from the state’s growing Research Triangle region, and an online pioneer. Similarly, his tenure as chair of AP’s board of directors in the mid-1990s was marked by the not-for-profit news cooperative’s technological expansion.”

His grandfather, Josephus Daniels, bought The News and Observer in 1894 and was editor and publisher of the newspaper until his death in 1948. His father was publisher from then until 1971, when Frank Jr. was named president and publisher.

He was raised to believe the role of a newspaper was to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable, and to not shy from controversy.

“The most important thing you can do is always tell the truth,” he said when he retired from The News & Observer in 1996. “If the people at the newspaper don’t tell the truth, then people don’t know where you stand. You’ve got to be able to depend on truthfulness.”

The early years of his family’s ownership of The News and Observer were marred by his grandfather’s views on race and the role the newspaper played in keeping white people in power, but his father and his uncle, Jonathan Daniels, who succeeded Josephus as editor in 1948, worked to make the newspaper a leader in North Carolina’s efforts be a more equal and fair place for all its citizens. Frank Jr. carried on in their footsteps.

When Jonathan retired as editor, Frank hired Claude Sitton, who was national editor of The New York Times, and a noted civil rights reporter. Sitton served as editor until 1990. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his editorial columns encouraging desegregation and progress in civil rights. On Daniels’ watch The N&O became a “moderate-to-liberal voice on civil rights and as a government watchdog.” Daniels defended Sitton at every turn, despite great pressure from conservative business and political forces.

He led The News & Observer through early innovation in digital publishing. In 1994, he oversaw the launch of The N&O’s online newspaper, one of the first internet newspapers in the world.

In 1996, the newspaper received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service journalism for its work on the political and environment dangers that the hog industry was creating in North Carolina.

“Frank ran The News & Observer not just as a business, but also as the embodiment of his progressive and optimistic vision for his community and state,” said Hugh Stevens, The N&O’s longtime attorney.

During his lifetime of service to the publishing industry, Frank served as chairman of the board of The Associated Press as well as the American Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation. He also served as president of the North Carolina Press Association, the Newspaper Advertising Bureau, and the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association.

In 1995, the family sold The News and Observer and the weekly newspapers it owned in surrounding counties to McClatchy Newspapers of Sacramento, California. But Frank still had ink in his veins and led a group to buy The Pilot newspaper in Southern Pines. The Pilot later bought statewide magazine Business North Carolina and regional lifestyle magazines Pine Straw, O. Henry, South Park and Walter and the Country Bookshop in Southern Pines.

Frank attended Woodberry Forest School, where he was known as “lightning” by the track coach due to his (lack of) speed and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with an AB in History, in 1953.

On June 4, 1954, he married Julia Jones, and they became a formidable couple. They enjoyed a long and lively union. Frank joined the Air Force in 1955 and served in Japan during the early years of their marriage. Upon returning to North Carolina, they settled in Raleigh. On their 50th anniversary in 2004, Frank and Julia completed a goal Julia set early in their marriage – to visit all 50 state capitol buildings.

Frank was a long-time supporter of education in North Carolina. As a member of the Raleigh Junior Chamber of Commerce, he was part of a group of young business leaders who helped convince the legislature to allow a merger of the Raleigh and Wake County Public School systems that enabled the systems to integrate successfully.

He served on the University of North Carolina Board of Governors, as a trustee of Woodberry Forest School, St. Mary’s College, Peace College and Appalachian State University, as well as the Institute of Private Enterprise at Kenan Flagler School of Business at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Throughout his career, he served on countless community, state and national boards including as chairman of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Board as well as a director of the Smithsonian Business Ventures, the RDU Airport Authority, UNC Health board and as chairman of AAA of the Carolinas. He also served as chairman of the Triangle United Way, the United Arts Council of Wake County, and Rex Hospital.

For his civic leadership, he was recognized with the A.E. Finley Award for Public Service, the North Carolina Museum of History’s Philanthropist of the Year

award, the North Carolina Press Association’s North Carolinian of the Year and NC’s state’s highest civilian honor, the North Carolina Award for Public Service. He and Julia Daniels were inducted into the Raleigh Hall of Fame in 2008.

In 2020, the University of North Carolina Hussman School of Journalism and Media announced the Frank A. Daniels, Jr. Executive in Residence Program. At that announcement ceremony, Daniels’ nephew and publisher of The Pilot, David Woronoff, stated, “Everyone can use a Frank Jr. in their lives. This executive-in-residence program allows the legacy that I was so fortunate to enjoy be shared with future generations of North Carolinians.”

A lifelong Democrat, Frank offered support to many of North Carolina’s most successful politicians including Governors Hodges, Sanford, Moore, Scott, Hunt, Easley, Perdue and Cooper. His fundraisers were legendary. The News & Observer’s endorsements made or broke many a candidate. However, upon Daniels’ retirement in 1996, Senator Jesse Helms wrote, “Congratulations and thanks a lot. If I didn’t have your newspaper’s opposite stand, I couldn’t have been elected in 1972. Most recently, I appreciate your newspaper’s help in electing me to my fifth Senate term.”

He lived up to his name, as he was known widely for his frankness. He took his work seriously, but not himself. Nan Keohane, former president of Duke University wrote on the occasion of his retirement, “You are part of a splendid defense against pretense and in your own tireless fight against ignorance, you occasionally raise your voice and tell it like it really is.” Richard Stevens, then Wake County Manager, added, “Few individuals are willing to say exactly what they are thinking no matter where they are. Frank is one of those few and for that I greatly admired him.”

Besides his candor, Daniels was known as a loyal friend who never forgot a birthday, a generous philanthropist, and an inveterate golfer who loved Figure Eight Island and Roaring Gap. He was an adventurous traveler and always the life of the party--tall and handsome with dimples in his cheeks and a twinkle in his eye.

Surviving him in addition to his devoted wife, Julia, are his daughter, Julie Daniels and her husband, Tom West, of Sun Valley, Idaho, and Raleigh; son, Frank A. Daniels III and his wife, Carol Goss Daniels, of Clarksville, Tenn. Grandchildren include Kimberly Daniels Taws and her husband John, of Pinehurst; Frank A. Daniels IV and his wife, Ellie, of Southern Pines; and Joseph Davison Daniels of Nashville, Tenn. Step-grandchildren include Megan Koontz and her husband Tyler of Knoxville, Tenn., and Samantha Miravalle and her husband Nicholas of Augusta Ga. Great-grandchildren include Reed and Josephus (Whit) Taws, Wade and Frank A. Daniels V; and step-great-grandchildren Finnegan and Emmeline Miravalle and Aiden and James Koontz.

In addition, he is survived by his sister Patricia Bagley Daniels of Raleigh and Vero Beach, Florida; and nieces and nephews Ruth Daniels Woronoff Pellisero; Robert Murray Woronoff, Jr.; Patricia Daniels Woronoff Padden; David Bagley Woronoff; and Frank Daniels Woronoff.

A memorial service will be held at 2PM on July 11 at White Memorial Presbyterian Church in Raleigh.

In lieu of flowers, please make memorial contributions to the North Carolina Museum of History Foundation, 5 East Edenton Street, Raleigh, NC 27601, or The Frank A. Daniels Jr. Executive in Residence Program, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, CB 3365, Carroll Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27514.

Service arrangements are with Brown-Wynne Funeral Home, 300 Saint Mary's St. Raleigh, NC, (919) 828-4311. Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.brownwynneraleigh.com for the Daniels family.