Robert O. ‘Bob’ Grover, Baltimore Sun copy desk chief in the ’70s and ’80s who taught journalism, dies

Robert O. Grover, former Baltimore Sun copy desk chief who held a similar post at U.S. News & World Report and taught journalism to a generation of college students in Maryland, died of Parkinson’s disease Dec. 22 at Symphony Manor in Roland Park. The Glyndon resident was 81.

“Bob was a skilled editor, no doubt, but he was also really good with people,” said Jim Bock, a former Sun copy editor.

“He actually hired me twice, first in 1973 as a copy editor, and then on U.S. News & World Report,” he said. “He sort of set up my whole career.”

Judy Burke was hired by Mr. Grover in 1981 to be part of The Sun’s copy desk, and then followed him to U.S. News & World Report in Washington in 1995.

“He was incredibly passionate about the newspaper business without being tiresome,” Ms. Burke said. “He defended the rights of journalists and journalism without being dogmatic.”

Peter Meredith was hired by Mr. Grover in 1979, and 12 years later, worked for him again in Washington.

“He was excellent and he worried about stuff and wanted to get it right,” Mr. Meredith said. “He was a marvel when it came time to taking care of the people he had hired.”

Robert Oliver Grover was born into a newspaper family in Philadelphia. His father, William Grover, had been night city editor at The Inquirer and The Bulletin, and his mother, Dorothy Love Grover, also worked for The Inquirer, where she wrote theater reviews and a love advice column.

Raised in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, he was a graduate of the old Sharon Hill High School.

In 1964, Mr. Grover earned a bachelor’s degree in news and editing from Pennsylvania State University in State College, and then enlisted in the Navy where he was a discipline officer and postal officer on the aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La, serving in both the Caribbean and Mediterranean.

Discharged with the rank of lieutenant junior grade in 1966, he was then hired by The Sun as a copy editor.

In 1970, when John H. Plunkett, chief of the copy desk, became an assistant managing editor of The Sun, Mr. Grover took over his old job.

“When he interviewed me, he was copy desk chief and he was dashing and handsome,” Mr. Bock recalled. “He had a great touch and a wonderful sense of humor, and I came away thinking that he was a cross between Robert Redford and Dick Cavett. He was not what I expected a copy desk chief to be. Bob was a guy who always stood out.”

“When I look back on it, Bob had a real knack when it came to hiring people who worked hard,  and he could bring out the best in people and their talents, and he appreciated their talents,” Ms. Burke said.

“When there were conflicts with reporters, he’d back you up, but at the same time not making enemies in the process,” she said. “He made work very congenial. He was the epitome of that.”

“Bob had a knack for being on good terms with everyone,” Mr. Meredith said.

Mr. Grover hired and trained 23 copy editors who handled national, international, local and business news when The Sun’s daily circulation was 200,000 daily and 400,000 on Sunday.

In 1985, when Sun management ordered a staff reduction, Mr. Grover declined to enact one on the copy desk and resigned.

“I had great admiration for him,” Ms. Burke said. “It was a very scary time and he protected us.”

In 1986, Mr. Grover became a senior news editor at U.S. News & World Report, where he edited copy for its print and online editions, as well as its college and hospital guides and special books.

He was named news desk chief in 1991, where he hired, trained and supervised copy editors.

He also was editor of the publication’s stylebook.

Mr. Meredith said that it was the magazine’s policy at the time that every reader letter was to be answered.

“They were parceled out to the staff and Bob loved that sort of thing,” Mr. Meredith said. “I recall he had one asking how people who were from Burma or Myanmar were to be addressed and he sought them out and even went to the Myanmar Embassy for an explanation.

“Bob would always take a stand against racial prejudice. I saw him more than once on the streets of Washington tackle someone if he heard them say something that he thought was biased.”

Mr. Grover was an adjunct professor at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at University of Maryland, College Park from 1989 until retiring in 2013.

“He was a role model and somebody who had a life outside of work. He had a family and played music,” Mr. Bock said.

As he grew up, Mr. Grover’s family were all musicians and his Sharon Hill boyhood home was often the venue for combos playing a variety of music, said his companion of 33 years, Teresa A. Moore, retired executive secretary of the Valley Planning Council. The couple married in 2010.

Mr. Grover played clarinet and in rock ‘n’ roll bands in the 1950s, and during his Navy years, formed a band with shipmates that played at USO shows. Later in life he played piano.

During the 1970s, Mr. Grover wrote a music column for The  Sun.

For decades, he played in Baltimore bands such as Gene Vincentt and the Cadillac Cruisers and Big Cam & the Lifters. When he was at U.S. News & World Report, he and his colleagues performed as Blues You Can Use.

Their home on Sherwood Road in Cockeysville was the site for an annual Sunday Before Memorial Day jam and party, Ms. Moore said.

The couple met early in 1977 at the old Angel Tavern on Bank Street in Fells Point, where she worked as a weekend bartender.

Dropping in for a dinner break from work along with another Sun reporter, Mr. Grover went over to an old upright piano in a side room.

“He started playing and caught my eye. I asked if he knew any Bonnie Raitt, and he played ‘Runaway.’ Should have been a tipoff to the age difference,” she wrote in an email. “I had just turned 21. He invited me to a party at his home in Cockeysville on Valentine’s Day, where I learned he was, gulp, 34. We hit it off despite our age gap. So, we had a long run of 47 years.”

Graveside services at Garrison Forest Veterans Cemetery are private. There will be a reception for family and friends from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday at the Harryman House at 340 Main St. in Reisterstown.

In addition to Ms. Moore, he is survived by a son, Dr. Robert W. Grover, of Melbourne, Florida; two daughters, Wendy Grover Ellsworth, of Lehi, Utah, and Suzanne Marie Grover, of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; a brother, Henry L. Grover, of Van Nuys, California; a sister, Mary Louise Krauss, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania; nine grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren.

His first marriage to Trudy Greene ended in divorce.