Pioneering editor Bibb dies

Thursday, Oct. 9, 1997 | 11:04 a.m.

Forrest Bibb was editing copy at the then-thrice weekly Elko Independent when he got a tip on a story that would become big news out of that sleepy Northern Nevada town.

Bibb tracked down the information, banged it out on an old manual typewriter, redid the front page on deadline and broke the story about the Luther Jones quadruple murders. Bibb's account of the grisly late 1930s stockyard bludgeonings would be carried in newspapers up and down the West Coast.

The next day, as he drew a puff on a Pall Mall cigarette, Bibb chuckled at the banner story in the rival newspaper: "Library Board Meets."

Forrest Bibb, a hard-living newspaperman who later served as Nevada's first budget director, has died at his Reno home. He was 88.

His son, Marty Bibb, a former public relations executive who now is director of the Retired Public Employees of Nevada, said his father had been recovering from heart aneurism surgery in February when he died in his sleep Monday.

"He was one of the very best newspapermen in Nevada -- a real soldier," Bibb said Wednesday, noting that his father abhorred the term "journalist" and took great pride in being a consummate reporter.

"I could not clean my father's typewriter keys on my best days."

Marty noted that his father had a "good, quick mind and a warm heart, but was skeptical and cynical as hell -- as any good newspaperman should be."

Bibb hung around with a crowd of reporters who have gained legendary status in Nevada. Among them were the Reno Gazette's Paul Leonard, Ty Cobb and Joe Jackson; the Mineral County Independent News' Jack McCloskey; and United Press' Caroll Cross, who wired Bibb's Luther Jones murders story to the world.

"Forrest was solid on his facts," said McCloskey, longtime Mineral County Independent editor/publisher who in his 80s still writes a column for the paper. "He was extremely honest and was good at understanding people."

At UNR, Bibb edited the Sagebrush campus newspaper and studied under A.L. Higginbotham, the father of the school of journalism in Nevada. As Sagebrush editor, Bibb met his future wife, Grace Armbruster, then a Sagebrush columnist and later a schoolteacher.

Born Sept. 18, 1909, in Campbell, Calif., Bibb was raised in Jungo, now a ghost town outside of Winnemucca. He was a member of the pioneering Austin mining family.

Bibb graduated from Reno High School in 1928. Upon graduating from UNR in 1935, he worked as a reporter for the Salinas Independent and edited the Castorville News, both California newspapers.

In the late 1930s, Bibb became editor of the Elko Independent, which today is a weekly and Nevada's oldest continuous running newspaper (first published in June 1869). He quit after a dispute with the publisher over editorial topics.

Bibb was appointed by Gov. Richard Kirman as public relations officer for the newly created Nevada Unemployment Compensation Division.

That job took him to Southern Nevada, where he went around to local newspapers, urging them to write editorials encouraging employers to make deductions in their employee's wages to cover unemployment benefits.

That was no easy task back then, given the independent nature of employers in those days. The office Bibb virtually organized today is known as the Nevada Employment Securities Division.

During World War II, Bibb, who stood 6-foot-4 but weighed just 140 pounds in his prime, served as a Naval cargo plane navigator. He delivered supplies to Pacific islands after they were secured by allied forces.

By war's end, Bibb had attained the rank of lieutenant commander. Earlier on, he had served in Nevada's 40th Military Police unit.

After the war, Bibb joined John Mueller and Denver Dickerson to form the public relations firm of Mueller, Dickerson and Bibb. Today in Las Vegas, a Dickerson descendant operates the public relations firm of Merica Dickerson.

Gov. Vail Pittman appointed Bibb the state's first budget director in the late 1940s.

Bibb later worked as an estimator for a Northern Nevada home improvement firm.

He retired in 1982, the year his wife died. About that time, Bibb gave up alcohol. Six years later, he quit his longtime three-pack-a-day cigarette habit cold turkey.

"My father was sharp to the end," Marty said. "Well into his 80s I'd ask him to look over speeches I had written. He'd never say something was wrong, but rather 'let's try it this way.'"

Before he underwent heart surgery earlier this year, the old newspaperman took nothing to chance, writing his own obituary, which Marty edited and sent to newspapers after his death.

In addition to Marty, a Carson City resident, Bibb is survived by another son, John Stephen Bibb of El Paso, Texas, five grandchildren and several cousins.

No funeral was held. Instead, the family is planning a memorial service. Cremation was at Mountain View Crematory under the direction of Walton Funeral Home in Reno.