Robert Dye was ‘always a journalist’ despite corporate job
Robert Dye, a former Milwaukee Sentinel assistant editor who later moved to its parent company Journal Communications, died Monday at 74.
Dye was the vice president of corporate communications during the Sentinel’s merger with the Milwaukee Journal. He was also instrumental throughout retirement in running the Journal Foundation, which distributes scholarships to area college students.
Friends and family remembered Dye as an outgoing, supportive and respectful presence in the company.
“Nothing ever really bothered Bob in the newsroom,” said Ken Roesslein, a former editorial page editor and longtime friend of Dye. “When something was happening, it seemed like he was a calming force.”
Originally from St. Charles, Missouri, Dye attended Baylor University and worked for a time in Kansas City. He was hired by the Sentinel while in Milwaukee on a layover. He had been headed to a job interview in Canada, his wife Kathie Anderson Dye said.
At the paper, Dye served as an assignment editor, assistant city editor and news systems editor. In that role, he was known for introducing staff to new technology that would bring reporting into the modern era.
When the Journal and Sentinel merged in 1995, Dye was “in on the ground floor,” Roesslein said, helping manage the process from a communications standpoint. He was also an important figure when Journal Communications held its initial public offering in 2003 and became a publicly traded company.
Despite his corporate position, Dye was “always a journalist, first and foremost,” his wife said.
For more than 20 years, Dye also led the Journal Foundation advisory committee, which helps distribute hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships to students at 13 colleges and universities in Wisconsin. The foundation also directs funds toward journalism and communications research.
Last year he stepped down as chair but remained a member of the board.
Dedicated and organized, Dye held the board together for years, said committee secretary Tom Heinen, also a former newspaper editor.
“Bob kept it all going,” Heinen said. “Sometimes things happen smoothly and you take it for granted, but there’s a lot of work behind the scenes.”
Dye is survived by his wife, Kathie, and son, Jeffrey.