Family members and colleagues remember Richard Darby as a solid journalist and a patient teacher. The retired managing editor of the Marion Daily Republican died this morning at Arlington Memorial Hospital in Arlington, Texas.
Darby, who passed away at 6:30 a.m., had been splitting time between his Marion home and the Dallas-Fort Worth area while undergoing treatment for lymphoma. He had been fighting cancer for almost five years.
Ironically, Darby’s death came on the morning of the annual Southern Illinois Editorial Association awards luncheon, scheduled for later today at Giant City State Park. Darby had been named a SIEA Master Editor in 1994.
Editor Emeritus Bob Ellis of the West Frankfort Daily American said Darby was an “across-the-board journalist”
“It’s a great loss for the journalism community,” Ellis said.
Darby, who grew up between West Frankfort and Thompsonville, graduated from Frankfort Community High School and Southern Illinois University before beginning his journalism career in 1959. He had originally wanted to be high school journalism teacher but after stops in Fairfield, Vandalia and De Soto, Mo., he spent nearly 10 years at the MDR, from 1962 to 1971. Ellis remembered those early years
“He taught me a lot in the early days,” Ellis said. “Oldham Paisley (the late MDR publisher and Richard were a great team.
Ellis said he would spend hours listening to Darby and longtime MDR staffer Home Butler. “It was like manna from heaven,” Ellis said.
After nearly a quarter-century as a congressional aide and a public relations consultant, Darby returned to daily journalism as an editorial consultant to the MDR at the end of 1992.
Months later, he took the helm of the newsroom until his cancer was diagnosed. He then worked part-time until the fall of 1997. Since then, he had been semi-retired.
Former MDR publisher Sam Shelton said Darby was “one of the best newspapermen in Southern Illinois.”
“He was also a good friend,” Shelton said. “I’ll miss him.”
Former colleagues remember Darby’s teaching skill.
“The fact that he was willing to give a totally untrained person an opportunity was the thing that had the greatest impact on me,” said MDR Community Editor Diane Wilkins.
“He’s the one who literally pushed me to be more aggressive in finding a story,” Wilkins added.
Darby’s son Russell later followed in his footsteps as first a reporter, then editor of the MDR.
“I learned everything I know from him,” the younger Darby said. “He really taught me everything about the news, and how to play the news.”
Russell Darby said he had seen his dad in Arlington about a week ago.
The word was that he was more or less in remission,” he said. But the cancer had apparently spread undetected by ultrasound and caused other problems.
“It was essentially a heart attack that he didn’t recover from,” said the younger Darby.
In recent years, Darby and wife Nancy had been able to travel — particularly to the Holy Land — a trip he had been hoping to make for years. He was also interested in computers, sometimes e-mailing friends from his motel room in Texas while undergoing treatment last summer. —-Bill Grimes, Marion Daily Republican, April 26, 2001
Remembering Richard Darby
You rarely get to say about someone that “he was a giant in his field.” You can, however, proclaim that about Richard Darby. Unlike many specialists today, he was the quintessential newsman, skilled in all areas of journalism. The way you had to be in the 1960s and ’70s. You learned it all and I learned much of it from Dick Darby.
We met when my company purchased the Marion Daily Republican from Col. Oldham Paisley. Also on board was former state representative Homer Butler. I cheated college by getting a free education from these two. I sat for hours on end raptly listening to the two of them who generously shared their knowledge with a fledgling newbie who was uneducated, but bent on hanging on in a tough business where they chewed up and spit out high school dropouts like me.
Darby would always drop whatever he was doing when I called or stopped by, and he would patiently explain this or that. He got me through a tough time period. My survival in journalism, such as it is, is largely part of his doing. No regrets about one thing. I told him this, many times. I am happy now that I did. That’s why he was a Master Editor.
Sing you your sad songs if you will, I rather like to think that Richard won his duel with the grim reaper. I have never witnessed such a gallant struggle as he waged against his affliction. He battled tooth and nail and, in my opinion, such an exertion of the human spirit made him a winner. Even in this, much like his imparting knowledge of our craft to me, he taught me. Compared to this legacy, death is indeed a loser.
This writer lacks proper words for the respect that Dick Darby deserves. So I yield to the great metaphysical poet, John Donne, who wrote “no man is an island entire unto himself; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
More importantly, Donne added, “Death be not proud, though some have called you mighty and dreadful, but thou art not so.”
This is a thought that I shared with another friend recently. I think Donne’s words are true. Sometimes, especially after a great loss, it might be difficult to grasp such a concept. But it shouldn’t be. Just look to the goodness of a rich, accomplished life and say, “he did exceptionally well.” At times like these, a writer is painfully aware of his inadequacy to soothe and console those who loved him. Nothing can dull the pain and hurt that seeps into the very soul when a loved one’s mortality is compromised. It must be addressed first by the moment, then by the hour. Mercifully, the days, months and years will provide some easement. But that healing process can be enhanced by an unabashed celebration of what that person represented to others in life. As long as we keep them in our hearts and minds, they survive, where it counts the most.
So, old friend, teacher and mentor, in eulogizing you, I fail in doing you proper justice. But I did do what you taught me to do. The cardinal rule you instilled in me to give to every story. I tried. —–Bob Ellis, Marion Daily Republican, April 28, 2001 —Bob Ellis is the editor emeritus of the Daily American in West Frankfort
Richard Darby Obituary
Richard Allen Darby, 63, passed away at 6:30 a.m., April 26, 2001, at Arlington Memorial Hospital in Arlington, Texas.
He was born June 3, 1937 to Russell F. Darby and Rosalie (Cunningham) Darby in Chicago. He married Nancy (Mabry) Darby in Huntsville, Ala., September 13, 1958.
Mr. Darby’s occupation was a journalist. He was a member of the First United Methodist Church and the Rotary Club in Marion, and a member of the Southern Illinois Editorial Association.
Survivors include his wife, Nancy of Marion; mother Rosalie Darby of Marion; daughter and son-in-law Faith and Eric Fisher of Johnston City; son Russell Darby of Marion; brother and sister-in-law Randy and Shirley Darby of Marion; sister and brother-in-law Francine and Curtis Williams of Denver, Colo.; and several nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his father, Russell F. Darby and his brother Fred Darby.
Services will be at Mitchell-Hughes Funeral Home at 1:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 1, 2001 with the Rev. Melva England officiating Burial will follow at East Fork Cemetery in West Frankfort. Visitation will be at the funeral home from 5 to 9 p.m., Monday, April 30, 2001. ——-Marion Daily Republican, April 30, 2001
Sam’s Notes: Darby was also active in the Marion Jaycee’s in the 1970’s
(Extracted from Marion Daily Republican articles April 2001)