Robert ( Bob ) Pape

ROBERT PAPE, 72, of Asheville, of complications from Parkinson’s Disease. Bob Pape was a sports enthusiast whose first job was as sports reporter in Monroe, NY. When he moved on to the regional Middletown, NY Times-Herald-Record, he added reporter/photographer to his credentials. During his 20-year newspaper career, he earned fame for deducing that the local police were committing a rash of “unsolved” retail burglaries. His coverage of the conviction of the police chief as the ringleader earned him a Bureau Chief position in the Massachusetts Statehouse. Using Boston as his base, he covered the presidential campaigns of Ted Kennedy and Mike Dukakis and four Olympics for the Ottaway Newspaper chain, earning multiple awards for his reporting.

Shortly after his wife, Elizabeth Clark Pape, started Pape Communications in 1988, she asked him to join her. Their enterprise grew to a multimillion-dollar advertising agency with a national clientele.  The duo restored old houses as a second business. They retired to Asheville in 2011.

Outside the office, Bob was an avid fisherman, a bowler, a photographer and cross-country skier. He enjoyed Red Sox season tickets and seldom missed a Patriots or Celtics game on TV.

He was active in the Parkinson’s Support Group of Asheville.

In addition to his wife of 50 years, he leaves his son Jonathan Clark Pape and grandson Simon Atticus Pape of Dedham, MA and his sister Susan Pape Earl of Groveport, OH.  Contributions to the Michael J Fox Foundation are appreciated.

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