Bob Pinkerton Dies

Bob Pinkerton, a giant in the world of community newspapering and a pillar of his own community in Kimball, has died.

The former Western Nebraska Observer editor and publisher died at the age of 90 in Anthem, Ariz., where he lived in retirement.

Mr. Pinkerton owned the Observer from 1962 to 1993, when he sold the Kimball paper to his daughter, Sherry. Under his direction, the Observer was a force in the glory days of print journalism, winning seven national newspaper awards and 71 state newspaper awards.

Top awards won under his stewardship adorn Observer office walls to this day. He was inducted into the Nebraska Journalism Hall of Fame in 2005.

Mr. Pinkerton remained connected with the Observer until the end as a subscriber. In his later years, he would call from Arizona to personally renew his subscription.

When Jim Orr arrived as publisher in 2018, Mr. Pinkerton reached out to welcome him "to the brotherhood" and they talked on the phone or emailed several times after that.

Mr. Pinkerton also wrote a letter supporting the nomination to induct longtime Observer sportswriter Tom Southard into the Nebraska Journalism Hall of Fame. Southard, who Mr. Pinkerton hired at the Observer, posthumously joined his former mentor in the hall in 2022.

Mr. Pinkerton was a hometown boy who made good.

He graduated from Kimball County High School and the University of Nebraska, was a second lieutenant in the Air Force, and belonged to a number of organizations and boards in Kimball.

His obituary appears on Page A6.