Bob August

Robert Olin August was born on October 6, 1921 in Ashtabula, Ohio and grew up in Cleveland. He attended Collinwood High School where he played baseball on a championship-winning team. In 1943 he graduated from the College of Wooster, and immediately left for officer training at the Naval Midshipmen’s School at Notre Dame. He married Marilynn Eccles on September 23, 1943. As a naval officer, he served with the Special Close Gunfire Support Group for the Normandy Invasion and in the Pacific ending up in China.

In 1946 he went to work as a copy boy for the Cleveland Press, holding several jobs before moving to the sports department in 1951 as a copy editor and make-up man. He covered the Browns (1953-57), became executive sports editor in 1957 and sports editor in 1958. He began writing the sports column in 1964.

In 1978 he left the sports department to write a general column and assume administrative duties. He was associate editor when the Cleveland Press ceased publication in 1982.

That summer he became sports editor and columnist for the News-Herald, the column also appearing in other newspapers of the Horvitz chain. In addition, he began writing in 1982 a column called “The Wiser Side of Sixty,” which was distributed nationally by Universal Press Syndicate.

At the end of 1988, he retired as sports editor of the News-Herald and quit writing “The Wiser Side of Sixty” his wife and he moving to Wooster. He continued writing his sports column for the News-Herald.

Two books that are collections of columns have been published, Fun and Games in 2001 and The Wiser Side of Sixty in 2002. Numerous writing awards have been received including the Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Service Award. He is a member of the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame.

Bob August died on September 9, 2011.