Veteran South Florida newspaperman and historian Bill McGoun dies at 84

Bill McGoun picked up a pen and didn’t put it down for six decades.

The veteran newspaperman and historian was a prolific writer for The Miami Herald, The Palm Beach Post and The Citizen Times in Asheville, N.C., until October, when COVID-19 struck, drying the ink in his ballpoint and quieting his keyboard.

The 84-year-old, a 1955 graduate of Lake Worth High School, died May 4 after struggling to recover from the virus.

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Known for his encyclopedic knowledge and dry sense of humor, McGoun started his journalism career as a gofer for The Palm Beach Post in 1957 when the office was on Datura Street in downtown West Palm Beach.

He would climb the ranks to Broward news editor at The Miami Herald where he also had a “Broward heritage column.” In the mid-to late-1970s, he joined The Palm Beach Post and rose to senior editorial writer. He also wrote a series of articles about the history of Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties through the lives of the “notable, and in some cases, notorious” people.

“To me, he was what all dads are, but clearly as you get older you realize that’s not the case, it’s not all about you,” said McGoun’s daughter Desiree Ballard. “He loved writing and he stayed passionate about it and his beliefs until the day he died.”

McGoun was born Aug. 31, 1937, in New Castle, Pa., but moved to South Florida as a child. After high school, he attended Palm Beach Junior College. It was there that Ballard said he discovered his love for writing.

In a 1995 story for The Post, McGoun writes nostalgically about the Datura Street office and how he would run glossy photographs to a commercial engraver to be prepared for the next day’s newspaper as opposed to the more sterile computer scans of the day that churned out perfect-size prints in seconds.

“In those pre-Weather Channel days, we would display weather flags on the roof,” McGoun wrote. “One evening, someone wandered in off the street to ask about the hurricane.”

There was no hurricane. A day maintenance worker was told to fly a small-craft warning flag and mistakenly hoisted the hurricane flag.

“And then there was the rooftop rain gauge that once registered 2½ inches of rain during a drought,” McGoun wrote. “It’s a long, involved story. Suffice it to say the central character was a copy editor who drank a lot.”

McGoun earned a master’s degree in anthropology from Florida Atlantic University in 1981. He graduated from the University of Florida in 1989 with a Ph.D. in anthropology.

He wrote several books, including “Lake Worth High School: A History,” “Southeast Florida Pioneers,” “Ancient Miamians," and "Prehistoric Peoples of South Florida."

“I think his real calling was as an editorial writer because he felt so passionately about the state and that came out in what he wrote,” said Randy Schultz, former Post editorial page editor and freelance journalist for Boca Raton Magazine and the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “He woke up every morning caring about something, always.”

Jan Tuckwood, former associate editor of The Post, also remembers McGoun as someone with a “library in his head.”

“Journalists are among some of the smartest people you will ever meet, and Bill was one of the smartest journalists you will ever meet,” she said.

McGoun retired from The Post around 2000, moving with his wife to Bryson City, N.C., where they bought an old farmhouse with a “really big” library, Ballard said. McGoun didn't stop writing. He adopted the Bryson City area as his new hometown, writing for The Citizen Times in Asheville, regularly driving the 65 miles to the office for meetings.

McGoun’s wife Bonnie died in 2015, but he continued traveling, including to South Florida to see his son Michael McGoun and daughter-in-law Adriana, and to Florida Historical Society conferences. That’s where former Palm Beach Post reporter and historian Eliot Kleinberg would sometimes run into him.

“He was a journalist and historian to the end,” Kleinberg said. “After all, you never completely retire from either one.”

McGoun is also survived by daughter Brandy Knisley, sister Madalyn McGoun, four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Donations in his memory may be sent to the Marianna Black Library, 33 Fryemont St., Bryson City, NC 28713.

Kimberly Miller is a veteran journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate and how growth affects South Florida's environment. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com.

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This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: South Florida newspaperman Bill McGoun dies at 84