We lost Dick July 11, 2012, when he died at his home in Navesink, N.J.
He was born in Newark and was descended from a signer of the Articles of Confederation. At Princeton he majored in economics, was a varsity wrestler, and took his meals at Elm. His senior-year roommates were his brother, Ned, Bob Everitt, Bill Smith, Bob Bennett, and Phoebe Hustead. He was always vocal about his gratitude to Princeton for the education he got here.
Dick’s love of newspapers and an appreciation of their important function resulted in a lifelong career in the business. Starting as a reporter for the Boston Herald, he later joined the family paper, The Newark News, following Army service in Europe in World War II. With his partner and longtime friend, William Dean Singleton, he built MediaNews in 1983, a private company that now owns 57 papers across the nation and is the second -largest newspaper company after Gannett. A pioneer in newsprint-recycling technology, he was elected to the Paper Industries Hall of Fame in 1995. He retired in 2009.
Dick’s wife, Libby, died in 2004. He is survived by his daughters, Jean, Carolyn Miller, and Elizabeth Difani; son Charles; eight grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.