Bob Gross sales has his fingerprints throughout this paper.
He was one of many editors who reworked the Herald right into a tabloid in 1981, setting us aside in a paradigm shift that continues to gasoline our journalism right this moment. Brevity and beautiful pictures, together with scoops and compelling headlines, click on on the newsstands and on-line.
Bob was amongst just a few editors who studied the recognition of the previous Herald American and pivoted to what readers craved. If you would like it sugar-coated, purchase a donut — as our previous billboard said — and that’s what he envisioned. A paper with out bias that permit readers see all sides and make up their very own minds.
Bob Gross sales died Monday on the age of 89, and his household stated his days as a Herald editor in sports activities and information have been a number of the happiest of his profession.
“He was addicted to newspapers,” Bob’s son, Jonathan, stated.
“He was ahead of his time,” his daughter, Marian, added.
The Herald’s archives are stuffed with Bob’s work, however that’s not a shock. Journalism is usually referred to as the primary draft of historical past, and the tales preserve coming. However it’s the way you inform them that units you aside. Bob’s strategy won’t ever disappear from these pages.
“Bob was a great newspaperman and could remember where every story ran in the paper,” stated Ken Hartnett, a longtime journalist who was Government Metropolis Editor with Bob when the Herald turned on a dime. “He was a singular human being with a great heart.”
Ken, who started his profession protecting NFL Corridor of Fame Coach Vince Lombardi of the Inexperienced Bay Packers for the Related Press, stated the Herald was dropping cash in 1981 and needed to be saved. That’s when right this moment’s design was born.
“I said back then all we needed was six sober reporters and we could succeed,” Ken stated with a chuckle.
Jim Toedtman, the managing editor that yr, stated the “emphasis was on efficiency.” The net wasn’t round, so did he have a crystal ball?
“You have to get to the point and make your headlines sharper to distinguish yourself,” Jim defined. “We had a great esprit de corps and everyone was pulling in the right direction.”
The late Don Forst was the editor, however Bob, Jim and Ken have been the horsemen.
Esteemed Boston journalists, from Charles Pierce, Gerry Callahan, Tony Massarotti, and Mike Felger, to call just a few, have been all mentored by Bob Gross sales.
Political columnist Peter Lucas stated Bob “had a keen eye for both sports and politics. He was a newspaperman through and through, the likes of which they don’t make anymore.”
The Herald has an extended historical past of surviving. We’ve been purchased, bought and rescued from chapter. However on the core, we’re the paper of the folks of this nice metropolis and area.
“Keep up the fight,” urged Jim Toedtman.
He labored too laborious in 1981, together with Don, Ken, and Bob, to just accept something much less. He doesn’t have to fret about that; the spirit of 1981 is alive in right this moment’s Boston Herald!
Bob is survived by his spouse of 67 years, Naomi (Simon) Gross sales, their son Jonathan — his spouse Catalina — and granddaughter Sara (of Newton); their daughter Marian and her associate Ted (each of Lynn) — grandson Douglas and granddaughter Nicole; and lots of nieces, nephews, and cousins.
“The family is incredibly grateful to the staff at Woburn Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Woburn, and to Rachelle Tessa, who helped to care for Bob at home,” his obituary notes. “Bob will be dearly missed.”
A Celebration of Life might be scheduled someday within the spring.
His obit additionally provides that Bob labored on the New York Herald Tribune, Newsday, the Boston Globe, the Boston Phoenix, and the Boston Herald. For many years, Bob additionally taught journalism to college students fortunate sufficient to have Bob as a professor at Boston College and Northeastern College. Later, Bob joined the MIT Information Workplace. On the Globe, the place Bob was a reporter and columnist from 1966 to 1978, Bob was a member of the Pulitzer Prize-winning crew that lined the desegregation of Boston colleges in 1975. In 1973, Bob was additionally invited to contribute as a journalist-fellow at Northwestern College.
There’s an previous custom in journalism the place you pen an appreciation to those that toiled earlier than you. As one of many Herald’s former editors, Kevin Convey, as soon as stated to the newsroom, “We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.”
Bob, that’s you. Relaxation in peace, the Herald is standing tall.
