Former editor, journalist at The Telegraph dies after decades of hard-hitting news

J. Reginald “Reg” Murphy, former journalist for The Telegraph and esteemed newspaper publisher and editor for outlets across the U.S., has died at 90, according to his alma mater, Mercer University.

Murphy, born in 1934, was a pivotal newsman during the Civil Rights Movement, Jimmy Carter’s campaign for governor and president, and Martin Luther King’s political influence on Atlanta, according to the Digital Library of Georgia.

He gained national attention while working at The Atlanta Constitution after being kidnapped on Feb. 20, 1974, by abductors who told him “the American press was too leftist and too liberal,” the New York Times reported. Murphy’s newspaper paid a ransom of $700,000 two days later. He was released and went on to continue reporting hard-hitting news.

The Gainesville native started his career covering local news, sports and state politics at The Telegraph while studying at Mercer, then opened the paper’s Atlanta bureau in 1955. He later worked as a reporter and editor of The Atlanta Constitution and Atlanta Magazine, editor and publisher of the San Francisco Examiner, publisher and CEO of the Baltimore Sun, and president and CEO of the National Geographic Society, the Digital Library of Georgia reported.

Among his accomplishments, he was deemed a Nieman Fellow by Harvard University and Distinguished Alumnus by Mercer.

Mercer’s Reg Murphy Center for Collaborative Journalism, where The Telegraph office now sits, was named in his honor. He was a leader in higher education, having served on Mercer’s National Journalism Advisory Board and a range of other professional groups.

Murphy was a member and/or officer for the Board of Visitors and College of Journalism at University of Maryland. He was on the Board of Trustees for John Hopkins Hospital, San Francisco State University, California Institute of Technology, the Baltimore Literacy Foundation, Coastal Georgia Historical Society and Coastal Georgia Foundation; and an executive-in-residence at the College of Coastal Georgia.

Outside of the news world, he was the president of the U.S. Golf Association from 1994-1995.

The journalistic spearhead had two daughters, Karen Murphy Cornwell and Susan Murphy. Murphy and his wife, Diana, were major supporters of the Mercer Athletic Foundation, the College of Liberal Arts and Mercer University Press, a book publishing company.

Murphy died Saturday and funeral arrangements were pending Monday, according to a news release from Mercer.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

This story was originally published November 12, 2024 at 1:23 PM.