Richard Edward Doyle ’40

Richard Edward Doyle ’40 died on June 3, 2005, in Portland, Maine.

Born on October 4, 1918, in Portland, he prepared for college at Deering High School there and became a member of Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity at Bowdoin. Following his graduation in 1940, he became a copy boy with the Guy Gannett Publishing Company in Portland, publishers of the Portland Press Herald and the Portland Evening Express, as well as the Maine Sunday Telegram. During World War II, he served from 1942 to 1945 in the U.S. Army, attaining the rank of technician fifth grade and being awarded the Bronze Star while with the 95th Division. He returned to the Portland papers after the war as a sportswriter and was employed there until his retirement in 1984. He continued to write on a part-time basis for the papers until the early 1990s and for many years wrote summaries of Bowdoin’s football games for what was then the Bowdoin Alumnus. In 1959, he became school sports editor for the Portland papers and was named Maine Sports Writer of the Year by his colleagues in 1961. He retired in 1984, but for five years continued to write a weekly column for the Express. In 1982, he received the Joe Crozier Award from the Portland Chapter of the Maine Football Officials Association for outstanding contributions to the game. In that same year, he was the recipient of the Maine High School Athletic Directors Association Media Award, and in 1985 he became a member of the Honor Roll of the Maine School Coaches Association. In 1987, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the National High School Coaches Association, and he was the recipient of the Amateur Football Award of the State of Maine Chapter of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame, Inc. in 1989. In his retirement, he continued to write for the Maine Golf Magazine, a monthly publication. He was communicant of St. Patrick’s Church in Portland, serving as a lector there for many years and also as a member of the first St. Patrick’s Parish Council. Surviving are his wife, Anne Blake Doyle, whom he married in 1955; two daughters, Nancy E. Doyle of Cape Elizabeth and Dr. Joanne Doyle-Switz of Charlottesville, VA; two sons, Peter A. Doyle of Westbrook and Timothy E. Doyle of San Francisco, CA; and two grandchildren.