He called them "victory cigars," and he smoked them to celebrate the chaotic, noisy and what he termed "daily miracle" of putting out a newspaper.
He gained a state and national reputation for fair, accurate and insightful reporting long before he became a teacher and mentor for generations of news reporters.
He was a political columnist, a historian, a feature writer, an author and a popular speaker who could mesmerize an audience talking from memory without notes. He was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 2006.
Before all that he was a star athlete at West Lafayette High School and Tulane University, scoring a school record 1,151 points for the West Side and being selected to the 1975 Indiana High School Basketball Hall of Fame Silver Anniversary team.
As news of his passing spread on the Internet, social media sites such as Facebook filled with tributes:
"The world is a sadder place without Bob Kriebel."
"Great man and mentor to many."
"A talent for graceful living and talented writing."
"I will miss his wit, his smile, his sense of community and history."
"Bob gave me my first real reporting job and never stopped pointing me in the right direction. So proud to have called him friend."
"So sorry to hear. I loved when he stopped by to chat; a treasure and a joy to be around," former Journal & Courier publisher Gary Suisman wrote.
During a 57-year career with the Lafayette Journal & Courier that touched seven decades, Kriebel became the face of the newspaper to its readers through his columns and many personal appearances.
His journey into the history of Lafayette began in 1954 when he took an entry-level reporting job with the Journal & Courier after working briefly for the Lafayette Leader. His long career in journalism was interrupted in 1955 by two years service in the Army Counterintelligence Corps.
He covered national political conventions and John F. Kennedy campaigning in Lafayette on his way to the presidency. He wrote about legendary congressman and House Majority and Minority Leader Charlie Halleck, one of the most colorful figures in U.S. political history. He covered local government.
Richard Boehning, a Republican whose public service included Lafayette city attorney during the mid-1960s, a member of the Indiana House of Representatives from 1967 to 1972 — including four years as majority leader — and as chairman of the Indiana State Highway Commission from 1972 to 1976, remembered Kriebel for his high standards and ethics.
"Bob was a gentleman," Boehning said. "Many times politics, courtesy and fairness do not mix. But with Bob, he made it work. Courtesy and fairness were his foundation."
Sonya Margerum, a Democrat who became a six-term mayor of West Lafayette, remembered Kriebel as a reporter focused on accuracy.
"He was a very good journalist," she said. "He checked his facts and you knew anything he did would be done right. He also had a very good sense of humor and a warm manner. He was gracious with everyone."
Angie Rizzo was a friend of Kriebel's from the moment she started with the newspaper in 1961. She was a reporter during a time when women were not always accepted in the workplace.
"Bob was always there helping me all the way through," Rizzo said. "He showed me where my desk and typewriter were. He encouraged me to aspire to better things. He had a tape recorder mind. He could quote people from memory years later. He was just an incredible journalist and he became a really good friend."
"I talked to a man who was bragging about his Cadillac," Kriebel said one day while smoking his after-publication victory cigar. "I just listened. When I got home, I thought: 'You know what? I've got five Cadillacs.' "
Nancy Kriebel died Jan. 14. They were preceded in death by one daughter.
Bob Kriebel served as a reporter, metro editor, managing editor, editor and opinions page editor.
He helped lead the Journal & Courier as one of the first newspapers in the country to convert to computer production. His career spanned the days when newspapers still used late 19th century technologies, such as hot metal linotype machines and letterpresses, to the age of the Internet.
He helped launch the Sunday edition of the Journal & Courier and the switch from an afternoon to a morning newspaper.
In management, Kriebel spent a great deal of time with young reporters, coaching them on their stories and encouraging their success.
"Bob was a very kind guy who really related to his staff well," said Malcolm Applegate, Journal & Courier publisher from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. "He was an excellent editor who knew what it takes to cover the news and put out a consistently good newspaper, day in and day out. And he was a wonderful family man."
Smoking his victory cigar, Kriebel would sit by a reporter's desk, lean back and talk about journalism.
Deb Riechmann arrived at the Journal & Courier fresh out of college in 1980. She joined the Associated Press in 1984. Her assignments for the AP have included covering the president at the White House and reporting from Afghanistan. She now covers foreign affairs and remembers Kriebel as a wonderful teacher.
"He was always very supportive of young people," she said. "I remember when he'd call us into his office. I was always afraid. But he was always supportive and never diminished our enthusiasm for journalism. He was very nurturing. He allowed the freedom to learn, mess up and keep going."
Kriebel served as an adviser to the Purdue Exponent student newspaper from 1970 to 1986 and taught news writing in the Purdue University Department of Communications from 1978 to 1983. His students included interns sent to the paper by the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism.
The mid-1970s were an exciting time for people who love history. In 1976, there were celebrations throughout the country marking the U.S. bicentennial. The years 1975 and 1976 also marked the sesquicentennials of Lafayette and Tippecanoe County.
The Journal & Courier published special editions to mark the occasions, and Kriebel led the projects, spending many hours reading old newspaper stories on microfilm. He continued the research for a 1979 special section on 150 years of newspapers in Lafayette.
He was hooked. The stories he found in the old papers were so fascinating he couldn't get away from them. He began his "Old Lafayette" column in 1977. It ran until 2011, when he decided he was no longer as "sharp" as he once had been.
During the years he wrote the column his wife, Nancy, said he would disappear for hours reading microfilm and writing about everything from the time Abraham Lincoln stopped here on his way to Washington, D.C., and the presidency, to the Wabash and Erie Canal, to a man who scaled the Tippecanoe County Courthouse like a "human fly."
Kathy Atwell, executive director of the Tippecanoe County Historical Association, said the organization uses columns Kriebel wrote in its reference work daily.
"Bob was the go-to guy for any question we had about the history of Lafayette," she said. "Our community owes so much to him. We know so much more about our history because of Bob and the Journal & Courier that published all his columns. His columns are a treasure.
"He was a meticulous researcher," she said, "Bob was just a wonderful person who had a very hard time turning anyone down when they asked him to speak."
Margerum said she could call and ask Kriebel what year something happened in West Lafayette and he would have the answer. "Everything he wrote had such a human touch."
"I'm just a born writer, I have been my whole life," Kriebel told the Purdue Exponent in 2001. "When you're telling stories no one has heard before, there's a certain satisfaction. When you have it in print, it will be around forever. Not many people have written about the many stories of local history, I thought I could do it, and now I see no end in sight. I could go on writing these forever."
"A good man never dies," his favorite poet James Whitcomb Riley wrote, because of all the goodness he leaves in other people.
By Riley's philosophy, Bob Kriebel will live forever within all the people who loved him.
Bob Kriebel was a friend and mentor of John Norberg for more than 42 years.
Robert C. Kriebel, 81
Robert C. Kriebel died at 2 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014, at Creasy Springs Health Campus in Lafayette after battling dementia. He was 81.
He was born Oct. 24, 1932, in Bedford to Ralph and Mary (Roberts) Kriebel.
He graduated from West Lafayette High School, where he scored a school record 1,151 points for the basketball team. He played basketball and earned a bachelor's degree in journalism at Tulane University in New Orleans.
He married Nancy Swenson, a classmate at Tulane, on March 4, 1957, in Port Arthur, Texas. She died on Jan. 14, 2014.
He served two years in counterintelligence with U.S. Army, starting in 1954. In 1956, he returned to Tippecanoe County to work for the Lafayette Leader, before starting at the Journal & Courier a year later. During his career at the newspaper, he was a reporter and editor before retiring in 1993. After retirement, he continued to write Old Lafayette, a weekly column about local history that appeared in the J&C for 34 years, until 2011.
He wrote 13 books, many on Greater Lafayette and Purdue University history, and was a frequent public speaker. In 1975, he was named to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Silver Anniversary Team. He was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 2006. He was a member of Immanuel United Church of Christ.
He could build just about any sort of furniture. He was an Indiana University basketball and Detroit Tigers baseball fan. He knew how to set up a mean croquet course. Besides Nancy, the thing he loved most was being called on to be with or help his kids and grandchildren. And he did anything he could to help Nancy keep the gardens at their home along the Wildcat Creek in top shape for friends and family who came on Sundays for lunch and NFL football.
Surviving are children Robert S. (Sig) Kriebel of Brookston (wife, Mary); D. Carol Bangert of Lafayette (husband, Dave); Laura B. Fuller of Nazareth, Pa. (husband, Mark) and Thomas A. Kriebel of Lafayette (wife, Ann); a son-in-law, Alan Goodnight of Wichita, Kansas; and 12 grandchildren, Jarrett and Hannah Fuller; Joelle, Nathan, Liana and Sam Kriebel; Carmen, Ben and Jillian Kriebel; Olivia Bangert; and Cara and Chandler Goodnight. He was preceded in death by daughter Terry A. Goodnight.
Services are pending with Fisher Funeral Chapel in Lafayette. Memorials may be made in his name to the Tippecanoe County Historical Association.
- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/jconline/obituary.aspx?n=robert-c-kriebel&pid=172613118#sthash.IjcmyNH3.dpuf
Robert C. Kriebel died at 2 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014, at Creasy Springs Health Campus in Lafayette after battling dementia. He was 81.
He was born Oct. 24, 1932, in Bedford to Ralph and Mary (Roberts) Kriebel.
He graduated from West Lafayette High School, where he scored a school record 1,151 points for the basketball team. He played basketball and earned a bachelor's degree in journalism at Tulane University in New Orleans.
He married Nancy Swenson, a classmate at Tulane, on March 4, 1957, in Port Arthur, Texas. She died on Jan. 14, 2014.
He served two years in counterintelligence with U.S. Army, starting in 1954. In 1956, he returned to Tippecanoe County to work for the Lafayette Leader, before starting at the Journal & Courier a year later. During his career at the newspaper, he was a reporter and editor before retiring in 1993. After retirement, he continued to write Old Lafayette, a weekly column about local history that appeared in the J&C for 34 years, until 2011.
He wrote 13 books, many on Greater Lafayette and Purdue University history, and was a frequent public speaker. In 1975, he was named to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Silver Anniversary Team. He was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 2006. He was a member of Immanuel United Church of Christ.
He could build just about any sort of furniture. He was an Indiana University basketball and Detroit Tigers baseball fan. He knew how to set up a mean croquet course. Besides Nancy, the thing he loved most was being called on to be with or help his kids and grandchildren. And he did anything he could to help Nancy keep the gardens at their home along the Wildcat Creek in top shape for friends and family who came on Sundays for lunch and NFL football.
Surviving are children Robert S. (Sig) Kriebel of Brookston (wife, Mary); D. Carol Bangert of Lafayette (husband, Dave); Laura B. Fuller of Nazareth, Pa. (husband, Mark) and Thomas A. Kriebel of Lafayette (wife, Ann); a son-in-law, Alan Goodnight of Wichita, Kansas; and 12 grandchildren, Jarrett and Hannah Fuller; Joelle, Nathan, Liana and Sam Kriebel; Carmen, Ben and Jillian Kriebel; Olivia Bangert; and Cara and Chandler Goodnight. He was preceded in death by daughter Terry A. Goodnight.
Services are pending with Fisher Funeral Chapel in Lafayette. Memorials may be made in his name to the Tippecanoe County Historical Association.
- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/jconline/obituary.aspx?n=robert-c-kriebel&pid=172613118#sthash.IjcmyNH3.dpuf
bituary
Robert C. Kriebel, 81Robert C. Kriebel died at 2 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014, at Creasy Springs Health Campus in Lafayette after battling dementia. He was 81.
He was born Oct. 24, 1932, in Bedford to Ralph and Mary (Roberts) Kriebel.
He graduated from West Lafayette High School, where he scored a school record 1,151 points for the basketball team. He played basketball and earned a bachelor's degree in journalism at Tulane University in New Orleans.
He married Nancy Swenson, a classmate at Tulane, on March 4, 1957, in Port Arthur, Texas. She died on Jan. 14, 2014.
He served two years in counterintelligence with U.S. Army, starting in 1954. In 1956, he returned to Tippecanoe County to work for the Lafayette Leader, before starting at the Journal & Courier a year later. During his career at the newspaper, he was a reporter and editor before retiring in 1993. After retirement, he continued to write Old Lafayette, a weekly column about local history that appeared in the J&C for 34 years, until 2011.
He wrote 13 books, many on Greater Lafayette and Purdue University history, and was a frequent public speaker. In 1975, he was named to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Silver Anniversary Team. He was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 2006. He was a member of Immanuel United Church of Christ.
He could build just about any sort of furniture. He was an Indiana University basketball and Detroit Tigers baseball fan. He knew how to set up a mean croquet course. Besides Nancy, the thing he loved most was being called on to be with or help his kids and grandchildren. And he did anything he could to help Nancy keep the gardens at their home along the Wildcat Creek in top shape for friends and family who came on Sundays for lunch and NFL football.
Surviving are children Robert S. (Sig) Kriebel of Brookston (wife, Mary); D. Carol Bangert of Lafayette (husband, Dave); Laura B. Fuller of Nazareth, Pa. (husband, Mark) and Thomas A. Kriebel of Lafayette (wife, Ann); a son-in-law, Alan Goodnight of Wichita, Kansas; and 12 grandchildren, Jarrett and Hannah Fuller; Joelle, Nathan, Liana and Sam Kriebel; Carmen, Ben and Jillian Kriebel; Olivia Bangert; and Cara and Chandler Goodnight. He was preceded in death by daughter Terry A. Goodnight.
Services are pending with Fisher Funeral Chapel in Lafayette. Memorials may be made in his name to the Tippecanoe County Historical Association.
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