Robert Mathes, Former Publisher and E&P Sales Rep, Dies at 76

By: E&P Staff

Retired newspaper publisher Robert J. Mathes, who also worked as an E&P sales representative, died yesterday of complications from diabetes and other causes. The Louisiana resident was 76.

Mathes -- a Milwaukee native and University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate -- became publisher of The Daily Star in Hammond, La., in 1962. He was one of the few newspaper leaders in that region to welcome community news from African-American readers, and he wrote civil-rights editorials urging moderation and communication. Also, Mathes' award-winning paper was an early user of offset printing and color.

He left daily newspaper publishing for a second career, lasting nearly two decades, at E&P.

Mathes' wife, Madeleine, who survives him, is an archivist. She has established with Southeastern Louisiana University a library collection of her husband's professional papers and books relating to newspaper publishing in the second half of the 20th century.

Other survivors include son Mark Mathes, a former Tribune Media Services executive who now works as a newspaper publisher in Florida.