Article published November 27, 2009
ROLAND 'BUS' POWELL, 1922-2009
Reporter led Blade Washington bureau
RIDGWAY, Pa. - Roland "Bus" Powell, former Washington bureau chief of The Blade, died Wednesday at Elk County Regional Health Center in St. Marys, Pa. He was 87.
Mr. Powell became The Blade's top capital reporter in 1982 after he had already worked 27 years for the Buffalo Evening News covering Congress and the White House.
Mr. Powell retired from The Blade in 1989 and four years ago moved from the Washington, D.C., area - where he had lived 41 years - back to Ridgway in north-central Pennsylvania, his and his wife Helen's hometown. Daughter Mary Rita Tappan said her father had a sharp mind until the end, but that his health recently declined due to his age. He died of kidney failure.
Mr. Powell graduated from Ohio State University in 1943 with a degree in journalism, then enlisted in the Army, serving in Germany and Japan during World War II.
After the war, he and the former Helen MacDonald married in 1945, and he began his journalism career. He worked for the Ridgway Record, United Press International in Boston, and newspapers in Oneida, N.Y., and Titusville, Pa., before joining the Buffalo Evening News in 1955.
Among his notable assignments while in Buffalo was coverage of the discovery by police of the Apalachin, N.Y., organized crime leader meeting in 1957 and follow-up stories on organized crime in Buffalo, regionally, and nationally.While serving as The Blade's Washington bureau chief, Mr. Powell was an active member of the Gridiron Club, a group of 60 journalists who put on an annual show roasting, with skits and songs, the people they cover.
His son Thomas Powell, of Elkton, Va., said Mr. Powell was his scoutmaster and that he continued in that role for years after his own sons moved on.
"He was into camping trips, things like that," Thomas Powell said.
In 1984, Thomas Powell attended one of the Gridiron dinners with his father and the late Paul Block, Jr., publisher of The Blade. Among the famous names at the event were the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was running for president, and President Ronald Reagan.
John Robinson Block, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Blade, who worked with Mr. Powell in the Washington bureau in 1982, said Mr. Powell was "a crackerjack reporter" who brought credit to the profession.
"I worked with him and was proud to work with him. Roland could go into his Rolodex and make the call to the right person, and within five minutes, he would be called back with whoever was needed or whatever source was required," Mr. Block said.
"He was a class act. He was a gentleman, somebody that just made you feel so good about being a reporter," Mr. Block said.
Mr. Powell traveled widely as a journalist and was a member of the reporting pool on Air Force One. In 1986, he reported for The Blade from the Tokyo Summit attended by Mr. Reagan.
He also worked part time in the 1970s for the International Roads Federation, traveling as a reporter and editor for the organization's magazine on efforts to help build infrastructure in developing countries in the Middle East and Africa.
Mrs. Tappan said her father spent a lot of time in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and Africa's Ivory Coast.
"That was a part-time job for him. At that time he was the White House correspondent for the Buffalo Evening News," Mrs. Tappan said.
In his farewell column in The Blade Dec. 24, 1988, Mr. Powell said he was not mechanically inclined, which complicated his efforts to adjust to changing reporting technology, including computers.
"My idea of equipment was a notebook, pencil, and enough change for pay phones," he wrote. "When on the road, it was important to be able to find the ubiquitous Western Union man with his sign in the crowd. He would go off into the night with the precious copy, but it always seemed to get in the paper."
Frank Kane, a former city editor of The Blade and Washington bureau reporter before Mr. Powell, said he had a reputation as "an excellent reporter."
"He used to come back to Toledo occasionally, a very genial guy and very well liked," Mr. Kane said.
When he returned to Ridgway, Mrs. Tappan said, her father became active in local organizations, including the Rotary Club. Mr. Powell made a vow that he would get to know every adult in the town of 4,200 and told her a few days before he died that he had achieved that goal.
"He'd walk around town and meet people and talk to them. He really met a lot of people doing the Rotary. Wherever Dad went he would talk to everyone around him," she said.
She said he didn't so much talk about himself as ask questions and learn about the people he encountered.
"He was always interviewing someone. He never lost that journalistic beat; that's what he loved better than anything else," Mrs. Tappan said. She also said he knew the names of every member of Congress, read widely, and followed political news closely.
Son-in-law John Gossart said Mr. Powell was a strong family man.
"He was serious. He was very intelligent. If you asked him his most important accomplishment it would probably be that his children made their own way in the world," said Mr. Gossart.
In Ridgway, he was a member of St. Leo Catholic Church, the Elks, the American Legion, and the Rotary Club.
Surviving are his wife, Helen, sons Peter and Thomas, daughters Mary Rita Tappan and Lisa Gossart, 14 grandchildren, and 8 great grandchildren.
His son Michael died in 2005.
Friends will be received at the Thompson Funeral Home in Ridgway from 4 to 6 p.m. today. The funeral mass will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow at St. Leo Catholic Church, 111 Depot St., Ridgway, Pa.
Tributes can be made to St. Leo Catholic Church or the Ridgway Ambulance Corp.
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