Obituary for Richard James Dill
Richard J. (Dick) Dill, an editor with the Boston Globe for more than three decades, died during the morning of Aug. 24 at his home in Cambridge after a long illness. Born on Aug. 16, 1941, he had celebrated his 81st birthday the week before.
A Cleveland native, the son of Richard A. and Josephine (Touschner) Dill, he was educated in parochial schools, and later earned degrees from John Carroll University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.
Drafted during the Vietnam War in the mid-1960s, he trained as a medic and served in a military hospital in Japan before joining the Globe in 1970 as a night copy desk editor.
Mr. Dill spent the next 35 years working afternoons into evenings in various news desk positions - copy editor, layout editor, assistant national/foreign editor, and assistant night editor - while also filling in on other news desks when help was needed there.
A quiet personality overall, he reserved his puckish sense of humor for colleagues and friends. Mr. Dill also was an artist whose sketches captured the subtleties of a busy newsroom in full swing. A number of them hang today on the walls of former colleagues.
He often said he had secured a second family with colleagues who worked beside him in the nighttime. He made that sentiment a formal one with his marriage after years of companionship to Susan Epstein, who worked as a copy editor on the night desk before moving into daylight work in the Living/Arts department. Ms. Epstein predeceased her husband in 2001.
After leaving the Globe, Mr. Dill worked as a freelance editor locally and spent time in Hong Kong as an editor with the International Herald Tribune.
In his retirement years, he found comfort with another Susan - Susan Lynch, who stood sturdily and lovingly by his side through a lingering illness and down to his last evening.
Survived by his brother, James Dill, of Foxborough, MA, Mr. Dill leaves his sister-in-law, Ellen Herr, and her husband, Bruce Herr, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, their daughters, Sarah and Rachel Herr, and many, many friends.
Burial, care of Keefe Funeral Homes in Cambridge, will be private. A celebration of Mr. Dill’s life is being planned for later this month.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Mr. Dill’s name to The Fletcher School, Tufts University.
A Cleveland native, the son of Richard A. and Josephine (Touschner) Dill, he was educated in parochial schools, and later earned degrees from John Carroll University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.
Drafted during the Vietnam War in the mid-1960s, he trained as a medic and served in a military hospital in Japan before joining the Globe in 1970 as a night copy desk editor.
Mr. Dill spent the next 35 years working afternoons into evenings in various news desk positions - copy editor, layout editor, assistant national/foreign editor, and assistant night editor - while also filling in on other news desks when help was needed there.
A quiet personality overall, he reserved his puckish sense of humor for colleagues and friends. Mr. Dill also was an artist whose sketches captured the subtleties of a busy newsroom in full swing. A number of them hang today on the walls of former colleagues.
He often said he had secured a second family with colleagues who worked beside him in the nighttime. He made that sentiment a formal one with his marriage after years of companionship to Susan Epstein, who worked as a copy editor on the night desk before moving into daylight work in the Living/Arts department. Ms. Epstein predeceased her husband in 2001.
After leaving the Globe, Mr. Dill worked as a freelance editor locally and spent time in Hong Kong as an editor with the International Herald Tribune.
In his retirement years, he found comfort with another Susan - Susan Lynch, who stood sturdily and lovingly by his side through a lingering illness and down to his last evening.
Survived by his brother, James Dill, of Foxborough, MA, Mr. Dill leaves his sister-in-law, Ellen Herr, and her husband, Bruce Herr, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, their daughters, Sarah and Rachel Herr, and many, many friends.
Burial, care of Keefe Funeral Homes in Cambridge, will be private. A celebration of Mr. Dill’s life is being planned for later this month.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Mr. Dill’s name to The Fletcher School, Tufts University.