Ex-Cleveland Press columnist dies

By Mark Gillispie, The Plain Dealer
WOOSTER, Ohio -- Bob August entertained Northeast Ohio newspaper readers for decades with his gentle wit and eloquent prose as a columnist for the Cleveland Press and the News-Herald in Lake County.

August died Friday in Wooster, where he had lived since the 1980s. He was 89.
"He was an incredibly talented writer," said Bob Sudyk, an award-winning sportswriter and columnist for the Press and Hartford Courant. "He was the Red Smith of the Midwest. He had such a skill with words. It was a great pleasure to read him."

August later wrote a nationally syndicated column titled, "The Wiser Side of 60," that was distributed by the United Press Syndicate from 1982 until 1986.
He was inducted into the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame in 1988.

August was born Oct. 6, 1921, in Ashtabula. He grew up in Cleveland and graduated from Collinwood High School, where he was a star baseball player. He continued playing baseball at the College of Wooster, where he graduated in 1943.

He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and commanded a ship that participated in the invasion of Normandy on D-Day. He ended the war in the Pacific Theater, preparing for the invasion of Japan.

August began his journalism career in 1946 as a makeup and copy editor for the Cleveland Press. He became a sportswriter and was promoted to sports editor in 1958. He wrote a sports column for the Press from 1964 until 1979, when he became a general columnist and associate editor.

After the Press folded in June 1982, August joined the News-Herald as sports editor and a columnist. He retired in 2003.

A collection of his columns, "Fun and Games -- Four Decades of the Best of Bob August," was published in 2001.
Sudyk said August had the ability to criticize sports figures without them knowing they had been eviscerated.

Said Paul Hoynes, The Plain Dealer's longtime Indians beat writer who worked for August at the Press and News-Herald: "Art Modell had a great line. He said, '[August] could you cut you up and you wouldn't even know you were bleeding.' "

Hoynes, like most of Cleveland's sportswriting community, admired August greatly.
"He was a writer's writer, a columnist's columnist," Hoynes said. "You just loved reading him. You weren't just getting hit over the head with the facts. You were getting a writing lesson."

Longtime friend Dick Feagler, who worked with him at the Press, said August liked but was never infatuated with sports. The act of writing was a different matter.
"He could be sitting there writing a funny line and be grimacing," Feagler said with a laugh. "He was the best I've ever read, and I've read many sports columnists from around the country."

It was only a few years ago, Feagler said, that August revealed that he had long had multiple sclerosis. Feagler said he remembered when August began to have trouble getting to and from the press box and locker room at the old Cleveland Stadium. Effects of the disease troubled August the rest of his life, although Feagler said his friend never complained.

August's daughter, Alison McCulloch, said her father was first diagnosed with the disease when he was in his early 40s. He refused to take the medicine prescribed to him, but was dutiful about continuing his regimen of swimming until just a few years ago.

McCulloch said her father's interests went far beyond the world of sports.
"He was an intellectual person," McCulloch said. "He had very strong feelings about the world and what was going wrong with it."

In addition to his daughter, August is survived by his wife of 66 years, Marilynn, and two granddaughters. A memorial service is being planned in Wooster sometime in the next few weeks.