Robert Giles, former editor of The Detroit News, dies at 90

Robert Giles, 90, a former editor and publisher of The Detroit News, died Monday after battling metastatic melanoma.

Giles spent 11 years at the News between 1986 to 1997, leading the paper to a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for exposing embezzlement at the Michigan House Fiscal Agency and overseeing the integration of the joint-operating agreement with the Detroit Free Press. Giles' career spanned the nation and a number of prominent newspapers, including the Akron Beacon Journal, the Democrat & Chronicle and the Times-Union in Rochester, New York.

"He was a very, very large advocate of local news and local news reporting," said Giles' daughter, Megan Giles Cooney, 60, who lives in Philadelphia. "We were very aware (at a young age) that our father had an important job and he took it seriously and felt he had to have the public's trust and he took that seriously."

Giles was born in Cleveland and grew up as an avid journalism consumer, later pursuing his undergraduate and graduate studies in journalism at DePauw University and Columbia University. He joined the Akron Beacon Journal as a writer before rising through the ranks — eventually reaching the post of executive editor — when he was tasked with leading the paper's coverage of campus shootings at Kent State University in 1970, which earned the publication a Pulitzer Prize.

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In 1975, Giles left the Beacon Journal and taught at the University of Kansas' School of Journalism as a professional in residence, according to the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, where Giles served as curator for a decade. Giles left Kansas for New York to lead the Democrat & Chronicle and the Times-Union in Rochester until 1986, when he came to Detroit.

"He was somebody who likes to talk about current events, current events were always what we talked about at the dinner table," said Giles' son, David Giles, 64, who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. "He was all about news and information and sharing it with his kids as well as others and that was his focus. His other two big loves, other than his family and his job, were sports — particularly Cleveland teams — and he loved to play his banjo."

Giles joined the Detroit news scene during a timultuous time as the city's competing papers embarked on a joint-operating agreement and a harsh strike that lasted 19 months. Giles retired from The Detroit News in 1997 and joined the Freedom Forum as a senior vice president and executive director of its Media Studies Center in New York City.

Giles' three children — David, Megan and Robert — pursued careers in the media or fields adjacent to the journalism industry. David was a news reporter at the Phildelphia Inquirer before becoming a deputy general counsel for E.W. Scripps Howard, Megan was a television reporter and Robert, 56, is a prosecuting attorney in Springfield, Virginia.

Giles is survived by his three children and six grandchildren: Walker, Caroline, Sadie, Ruby, Miles and Nick. Giles' wife, Nancy, died in 2021, the couple was married for 61 years.

mmarini@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Robert Giles, former editor of The Detroit News, dies at 90