Maynard, Robert C.

June 17, 1937 - August 17, 1993

Robert C. Maynard, the former Oakland Tribune publisher who rose from high school dropout to become one of the most powerful and respected black journalists in America, is dead at age 56. 

Maynard, who had battled prostate cancer for six years, died at his home Tuesday night, said Eric Newton, a friend and colleague. 

"History will record Bob as a pioneer, as an innovator and as one of California's great newspaper publishers," Gov. Pete Wilson said Wednesday. "In every way, Bob Maynard exemplified public service and a commitment to the community." 

Maynard became editor of The Oakland Tribune in 1979, and he and his wife, Nancy Hicks Maynard, bought it from Gannett Co. Inc. four years later. 

Until they sold it last year to the Alameda Newspaper Group, it was the nation's only black-owned major daily newspaper. 

Under Maynard's leadership, The Oakland Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize for photojournalism for coverage of the 1989 earthquake. It was also highly praised for its coverage of the 1991 Oakland Hills fire, which destroyed some 3,000 homes and burned to within a few feet of the Maynards' house. 

But recession and Maynard's ill health took their toll. 

The paper was $31.5 million in debt and within a week of closing in 1991 when it was rescued by a cash infusion from the nonprofit Freedom Forum, an Arlington, Va.-based media foundation. 

After selling the paper in November, Maynard said, "The fact that we don't get to continue to own it is far less important than the fact that it will continue to exist." 

Friends remembered Maynard as a man who tirelessly championed his cause of recruiting more minorities to the newsroom and never lost his enthusiasm for a challenge. 

"He was brilliant; he had an incredible mind," recalled Newton, editor-in-residence at the West Coast office of the Freedom Forum. 

"He was a skilled editor, an innovative publisher and a courageous friend and guide for us all," said Allen H. Neuharth, chairman of the Freedom Forum and Maynard's former boss at Gannett. 

Maynard was born in New York City's borough of Brooklyn on June 17, 1937, the son of an immigrant from Barbados. School held little attraction for him: He recalled in an interview last November how he often cut classes to visit the local courthouse. 

"It was the real stuff," he said. 

He dropped out of high school at age 16, but in 1965 he won a Nieman fellowship to Harvard, and he encouraged young people to stay in school. 

In 1977, the Maynards founded the Institute for Journalism Education to train and promote minority journalists. 

"He was able to show that a diverse newsroom was not a newsroom lacking in quality, that diversity could lead to great things like winning a Pulitzer," said Pearl Stewart, a longtime friend of the Maynards who became editor of The Oakland Tribune after the sale. 

Maynard's daily journalism career began in 1961 at the York (Pa.) Gazette and Daily, now the York Daily Record. He joined The Washington Post as a reporter in 1967 and worked his way up to associate editor-ombudsman and editorial writer before leaving for The Tribune. 

In the 1980s, he wrote a syndicated column and appeared on such public affairs shows as This Week With David Brinkley. 

He also served on The Associated Press board of directors 

from 1985 to 1991.

"Bob Maynard cared passionately about his newspaper, his profession and his country," said Louis D. Boccardi, AP president and chief executive officer. "His voice and heart will be missed." In addition to his wife, survivors include their children: Dori, David and Alex.