Bob Wills, longtime editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel and open government champion, died Thursday, July 22, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. He was 95.
“Wills died early Thursday in Madison, said his son Bob,” wrote the Journal Sentinel‘s Jim Higgins. “He slipped away quietly, his son said with a touch of gentle humor, knowing that quiet was a word people rarely associated with his father.”
Born in Colfax, Ill., Wills enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1944, serving as an aviation electrician’s mate. After his discharge, he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
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He worked at the Duluth (Minn.) Herald and News-Tribune before joining The Milwaukee Journal as a reporter in 1951. He was an assistant city editor at The Journal in 1962, when it bought the Sentinel from the Hearst Corp., naming Wills city editor of the newly acquired paper. In 1975, he was named editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel, and in 1991, he was promoted to executive vice president of Journal Sentinel, Inc.
Wills retired in 1993, two years before the newspapers merged into the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
A strong proponent of government transparency, Wills was a founder of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and served as its first president from 1979 to 1986.
Wills also served as a president of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Milwaukee SPJ Chapter, the Wisconsin Newspaper Association and Wisconsin Associated Press. In 2001, he was inducted into the Wisconsin Newspaper Hall of Fame.
In addition to son Bob, Wills is survived by sons Ken and Mike, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His wife Cherie predeceased him.
His sons suggest memorial contributions to Land O’ Lakes Public Library, Trees for Tomorrow in Eagle River and the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council.
The Milwaukee Press Club will host a memorial for Wills on Thursday, Sept. 30 at The Newsroom Pub, 137 E. Wells St., Milwaukee. The event, which is free and open to the public, includes the MPC annual meeting followed by a celebration of Wills’ life.
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