Robert William Matthews III (1920 - 1995)

Born 9 Jan 1920 in Albany, Dougherty, Georgia, United States

Died 8 Dec 1995 at age 75 in Maryland, United States

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Biography

Robert Matthews III is Notable.

Robert Matthews III served in the United States Coast Guard in World War II
Service started: 1942
Unit(s):
Service ended: 1945

Robert served in the Pacific with the U.S. Coast Guard during WWII after graduating from Wayne State University in Detroit.

He was an executive editor of the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper and former television and radio newsman.

In 1948, he started his career as a writer and editor for the Afro-American newspaper.

In 1963, he became a reporter and weekend anchorman at WEBB radio station. He followed his radio career with television when he became a reporter and weekend anchor at WBAL-TV in 1964.

In 1966, he became the first black TV news director in Baltimore. He jumped to the national networks in 1968, where one of his first assignments for CBS was covering the Woodstock festival in 1969.

He has continued success with television/radio and held positions as a news manager for NBC, bureau chief of NBC's Washington bureau and radio news director of WRC-WKYS radio in Washington until 1978. In 1978, he returned to Baltimore to edit Dawn magazine.

Known as an ambassador of Jazz Music, he was a founding member of the Jazz Listeners Club, which met in the Baltimore area. For his contributions to the jazz community, he was inducted into the Central Pennsylvania Jazz Hall of Fame and was honored by the Jazz Heritage Foundation of Baltimore. At the time of his death, he was a teaching a jazz course at Sojourner-Douglas College in East Baltimore, where he served on the board of directors. 

His first wife, the former Vashti Turley Murphy, daughter of Afro-American publisher, Carl J Murphy (1889-1967), died in 1981. They had four children.

He married his second wife, Kathleen Murphy, in 1983.

Sources

• Find A Grave: Memorial #134373076
• "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VMXH-J36 : 9 January 2021), Robert W Matthews, 08 Dec 1995; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
• "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKW8-ZBMZ : accessed 4 February 2021), Mr Robert William Matthews III, Washington DC, United States, 12 Dec 1995; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing Washington Post, The, born-digital text.
• Obituary: Robert W Matthews III, Baltimore Sun. December 11, 1995.