Douglas Kneeland, former 'NYT' Reporter and 'Chicago Trib' Editor, Dies at 78

By: E&P Staff Douglas E. Kneeland, the longtime New York Times correspondent, former Chicago Tribune editor, member of the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame -- and an original "Boy on the Bus" -- died Saturday after a battle with lung cancer. He was 78.

An excerpt from an obit from today's Bangor (Me.) Times -- where he began his career -- follows.

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During his 22 years with the Times, Kneeland reported on some of the most important events of the 20th century, including Watergate, race riots after Martin Luther King Jr.?s assassination, Vietnam War protests, the trial of Charles Manson and the Kent State killings.

He was one of the "Boys on the Bus" during Richard Nixon?s presidential campaign, and he broke the story of the Saturday Night Massacre ? Nixon?s dismissal of Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox and the subsequent resignation of Attorney General Elliot Richardson. He counted this among his most significant professional achievements.

Gene Roberts, Kneeland?s friend and editor at the Times, once said, "He?s our profession?s equivalent of a triple threat quarterback, only better."

A Lincoln, Maine, native and Mattanawcook Academy graduate, Kneeland attended the University of Maine, where he studied under former Philadelphia Inquirer editor Wayne Jordan. While a student at UM, Kneeland met his first wife, Anne Libby, and started his professional career in journalism at the Bangor Daily News.

After stints at the Worcester (Mass.) Telegram and the Lorain Journal in Ohio, he was hired by The New York Times, where he worked on the foreign and metropolitan desks before becoming a roving national correspondent based in Kansas City.

In 1969, Roberts wanted to turn the Times into a national newspaper, and he asked Kneeland to return to New York to help with the transition. In exchange, Roberts made Kneeland an offer he couldn?t refuse: if he stayed in New York for a year, he could have any assignment he wanted, which led to a national correspondent gig in California.

Roberts later called Kneeland "a pivotal force in making the Times into the comprehensive national newspaper that it is today."

Kneeland left the Times in 1981 to become a national and foreign editor of the Chicago Tribune. He went on to serve as the paper?s associate managing editor and public editor.