Veteran news executive Reg Murphy, who survived abduction decades ago, has died at 90

Associated Press

Reg Murphy, whose newsgathering career included stints as an editor and top executive at newspapers in Atlanta, San Francisco and Baltimore, has died. He was 90 years old. Murphy, who lived on St. Simons Island in Georgia, died Nov. 9. Murphy found himself the subject of national headlines in 1974 when he survived a politically motivated kidnapping. He worked as a reporter and editor at The Atlanta Constitution amid the civil-rights movement. Murphy later became editor and publisher of the San Francisco Examiner in the mid-1970s, then went on to serve as publisher of the Baltimore Sun. Murphy later joined the senior leadership of the National Geographic Society.