Bob Wills, a native of Colfax, Ill., was the longtime editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel and an open government champion.
In 1944, Bob enlisted in the U.S. Navy, 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.
He worked at the Duluth (Minn.) Herald and News-Tribune before joining The Milwaukee Journal as a reporter in 1951. Bob was an assistant city editor at The Journal in 1962, when it bought the Sentinel from the Hearst Corp., naming Bob 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.
Bob retired in 1993, two years before the newspapers merged into the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
A strong proponent of government transparency, Bob 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.
Bob and his wife Cherie, who predeceased him, had three sons — Bob, Ken and Mike —eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
He died Thursday, July 22, 2021, at age 95.
