Bob Spiegel was a "crackerjack reporter" who believed in "hard-hitting journalism."
He also was a "tall, bright man with a huge smile and bad knees."
So writes Patricia Simms in the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison.
Simms wrote Spiegel's obituary in her newspaper, where Spiegel was the editor for 12 years.
Spiegel, 87, died Monday at his home in Fernandina Beach, Fla. "near his favorite chair."
Spiegel also spent 19 years as a reporter at the old Des Moines Tribune, where people who remember him say he was the afternoon newspaper's "stud reporter," and later was the editor of the Mason City Globe-Gazette.
As I wrote earlier this week, he was a longtime fan of Drake athletics, and was known as a Drake Relays historian.
Spiegel, a Drake graduate, wrote five books on the world-famous track and field meet, and authored another book about Drake's 1968-69 Final Four basketball team.
Simms said memorial services for Spiegel will be held in Madison, Mason City, Des Moines and Amelia Island, Fla.
Spiegel is survived by three sons and five grandchildren. He had been retired barely three years when his wife was killed in a car accident in 1989.
A man who knew Spiegel said the accident "happened in Minnesota on Interstate 35 in the winter when Bob lost control of the car on ice and it slid in front of a truck after going through the median."
Spiegel played basketball at West High School in Waterloo for well-known coach Shrimp Strowbridge.
Here's the obituary on Spiegel in the Wisconsin State Journal that Patricia Simms wrote:
Robert Spiegel, who brought his reputation as a crackerjack reporter to bear on his dozen years as editor of the Wisconsin State Journal, died at his home near his favorite chair in Fernandina Beach, Fla., on Monday. He was 87.
A tall, bright man with a huge smile and bad knees, Spiegel was editor of the State Journal for 12 years before retiring in 1986.
A devotee of hard-hitting journalism, Spiegel continued to write after his retirement first to Hilton Head, S.C., then to Amelia Island, Fla. He crafted stories about the military bases in the Southeast for the Chicago Tribune until the time of his death.
“Bob brought a passion and vigor to journalism at the State Journal that began with his love of strong reporting,” Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council and former associate editor of the State Journal, said Friday. “He made sure the reporters had the tools and support they needed to do the best job they could.”
In 1943, Spiegel graduated from Drake University in Des Moines, and remained an ardent historian of Drake athletics, writing four books on the history of the Drake Relays.
He learned Japanese in the U.S. Army during World War II and met his future wife, Dorothy Kerr, in Washington, D.C. She was a WAVE in the U.S. Navy and the daughter of his Japanese teacher.
He was a reporter for the Des Moines Tribune for 19 years following his military service. He received the Sidney Hillman Foundation award in 1956 for his series on segregated housing, interviewed President Harry Truman and followed the career of Mike Mansfield as majority leader of the U.S. Senate. He once faced down labor leader Jimmy Hoffa and two bodyguards in a hotel room to justify stories critical of Hoffa.
He was editor of the Mason City (Iowa) Globe-Gazette for more than a decade before coming to Madison in 1974.
Spiegel came away from a visit to the Research Triangle in North Carolina believing Madison had similar assets. He started working with leaders from the University of Wisconsin and the Madison community to attract biotechnology firms and was integral to the creation of University Research Park.
Active in his church, Spiegel loved his family and raved about his three sons. He had been retired barely three years when his wife was killed in a car accident in 1989. He is survived by his sons and five grandchildren.
The family is planning memorial services in Madison, Mason City, Des Moines and Amelia Island, Fla.
