James Noel Standard stood only a few feet from Jack Ruby when Ruby killed suspected Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. It was one of many incredible moments in a long career that began in journalism and ended deeply rooted in spirituality.
A Little Rock, Ark., native, Standard began his newspaper career as a copy boy at the Arkansas Gazette while still a high school student. While at the University of Arkansas, he left before graduating to pursue a job in Borger, Texas — and at age 20 he became an obituary writer for The Oklahoman and Times in 1960 as an obituary writer.
Later, as an investigative reporter, Standard covered the police and courts beats as well as the state Capitol. In 1969 he was named as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, and spent a year with his family in Cambridge, Mass.
In 1972 he became an editor at The Oklahoman and Times, and three years later he was named managing editor. Standard became executive editor in 1984, following the Oklahoma City Times’ merger with The Oklahoman, and in 1990 he became editorial page editor and began writing a weekly column, "Jim Standard's Oklahoma.”
During his time with the paper he was named Oklahoma Newsman of the Year, spent much of his free time with journalistic and civic organizations, and was a frequent public speaker and lecturer.
Standard retired in 1995, after 35 years with the newspaper. After that he began a career in the ministry, pastoring at congregations in Florence, Italy; Lampasas, Texas; and most recently at the Atwood Baptist Church in Atwood, in southeastern Oklahoma.
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