It was said of Roy W. Howard, president of Scripps-Howard newspapers, that "to see him stride through a city room on one of his best days is to see an army with banners." Short, with a large round head that made him seem even shorter, he dressed in plaid or striped suits with hand-tailored checked shirts of bright yellow, green, or even purple, with a bow tie of the same material, and a fresh boutonniere in his lapel. Until the 1940s he carried a walking stick, and pince-nez hung from his vest.

He was also a one-man army of journalistic talent. Even as president of Scripps-Howard at the company's acme he could and did roll up his shirtsleeves and plunge into a breaking story. "I have never been one of those birds who could sit back and say, 'All right boys, go get them,'" he once said...