In his farewell column as publisher of The Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer in December 1997, Rolfe Neill said that in 40-odd years, illness had kept him away from work for less than a week. He attributed his robust health to good Iredell County genes and “the elixir of job joy.”
Neill, one of modern Charlotte’s most indelible leaders and publisher of the Observer from 1975 until his retirement in 1997, died early Friday, July 14, at age 90 of complications from peritoneal cancer, his daughter Ingrid Ebert of Kernersville said.
No public service is planned. Neill almost died in October. His nine months of unexpected and additional life turned into an extended celebration with family and friends, Ebert said.
