TIMONIUM, MD, U.S.A.
COLUMNIST, EDITOR, AUTHOR, THE CAPITAL GAZETTE, ANNAPOLIS, MD
06/28/2018, ANNAPOLIS, MD, U.S.A.
Journalist Rob Hiaasen columnist, editor and author, was a victim who was shot and killed at The Capital Gazette newspaper office in Annapolis, MD on June 28, 2018. He was 59 years old.
Mr. Hiaasen was born circa February 1959 in Fort Lauderdale, FL, to Kermit Odel Hiaasen, an attorney, and Patricia Moran, a homemaker. He graduated from Plantation High School, and earned a bachelor’s degree in communications at the University of Florida.
Carl Hiaasen, Rob’s brother exclaimed: “He was the most remarkable person. So gifted and talented and dedicated to journalism.” Recalled for the deft and understanding touch he applied to his off-center stories.
“Rob was a terrific reporter because he had an innate curiosity,” said former Baltimore Sun columnist Kevin Cowherd, a close friend. “He was a master of asking questions of the people he wrote about. It was one of his strengths. He was also drawn to quirky characters. In all his writing he tried to bring out the humanity.”
Steve Gunn, a former Capital editor described Rob Hiaasen as a “gifted editor who had an aura of an artist around him who made people want to make journalism a beautiful craft.”
Rob Hiaasen taught at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. A native of Plantation, FL. Rob Hiaasen began his career at The Palm Beach Post before joining The Baltimore Sun as a feature writer and regular columnist.
Among his in depth pieces, Rob Hiaasen wrote extensively about Kirk Bloodworth a death row inmate who was the first in the United States to be cleared of wrongdoing through DNA evidence. He was a staff reporter for The Baltimore Sun for 15 years.
Rob Hiaasen joined The Capital in 2010 as a Sunday columnist and assistant editor.