Longtime Journalist, University Of Arkansas Journalism Department Chairman Dies

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Robert R. Douglas, longtime Arkansas journalist and former chairman of the Walter J. Lemke Department of Journalism at the University of Arkansas, died Sunday after a lengthy illness. He was 77.

Douglas was managing editor of the Arkansas Gazette from 1972 to 1981 before leaving to head the journalism department for eight years until 1989. Most recently, Douglas was a weekly columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

During his time at the Gazette, Douglas served as night managing editor, news editor, telegraph editor, assistant state editor, copy editor and reporter. He shared responsibilities for two Gazette Pulitzer Prizes and was the news editor for the Gazette during the 1957 Little Rock Central High School crisis.

"It was his news judgment that was so important to the Gazette coverage of the 1957 crisis," longtime Arkansas journalist and current Arkansas Times columnist Robert McCord said.

Douglas was managing editor of The Arkansas Traveler, the student newspaper of the University of Arkansas in 1948. McCord and he broke the story in a special edition of The Traveler that Silas H. Hunt became the first black student to enter a major public institution in the South without litigation.

Douglas also was very involved in the formation of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, lobbying legislators and often testifying before legislative committees.

As chairman of the UA journalism department, Douglas assisted in the development and promotion of the journalism master’s program and established a combined journalism-political science major. Douglas also persuaded University administrators to name the journalism department after its founder, Walter J. Lemke, marking the first department in school history to bear a person’s name.

"Bob Douglas was somebody you definitely wanted on your side. He was a fighter and he fought for his friends. You could depend on that," said Dr. Patsy G. Watkins, journalism department and Faculty Senate chairwoman. "There is much to be said about his stature as a journalist in this state, and his leadership of the journalism department. But the thing that meant the most to me was his rock-hard support."

Douglas entered the Navy at age 17 and was stationed on an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific before returning to Arkansas to pursue his education. He attended Arkansas Tech and Harding College before finishing his journalism studies at the UA in 1948.

He was a member of the national and state Associated Press Managing Editors Association, Arkansas Political Science Association, Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce and Arkansas Press Association.

Arrangements are pending.