JACKSON, ROBERT
1926 – 2023
W. Robert Jackson, of Neshannock Township, retired reporter for the Youngstown Vindicator, died peacefully on February 8, 2023, after a brief hospitalization. He was 96.
Mr. Jackson was born in New Castle, PA, a son of W. Fulton and Irene Wettich Jackson. He is a January 1944 graduate of New Castle High School, where he played varsity basketball.
In April 1944 Mr. Jackson enlisted in the Navy and served in World War II until June of 1946. He spent 15 months as a Radioman in the Pacific Theater, including several months in post-war Japan.
In August 1946 he enrolled at Westminster College, joined the Sigma Nu fraternity and graduated in 1950 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism. Upon graduation he worked for three years at the New Castle News, then in 1953 he became employed at the Vindicator as the head of the paper’s Lawrence County Bureau. He retired from the Vindicator in 1991.
Following his retirement from the Vindicator, Mr. Jackson contributed feature stories for the Globe Leader of New Wilmington, PA, a weekly publication. He also did freelance writing; his stories were published in Pennsylvania Magazine, USA Today’s Baseball Weekly, Reunion Magazine, Senior Magazine (San Francisco), and Florida Monthly.
He was a member of the Pittsburgh Press Club and a former member of the Board of Directors of the Almira Home. He also served for a number of years as a member of the Lawrence County Sports Hall of Fame Committee.
An avid tennis player, Mr. Jackson was ranked as a senior in both singles and doubles in the Middle States section of the United States Tennis Association. He also coached the Neshannock High School girls tennis team from 1991 through 2005, during which he accumulated a win-loss record of 151-42 (an impressive .782 winning percentage). Included among those wins were five Section championships and one WPIAL championship.
During his time at Westminster College, he met and fell in love with Pauline Christos. They were married at the Westminster Chapel in 1952, a marriage that lasted 63+ years before she died in 2016. He often demonstrated his devotion as a loving husband by including personally written poems to her in birthday, anniversary and Valentine cards addressed to his beloved “Paulexani.”
Mr. Jackson touched the lives of nearly everyone he encountered. He was a natural journalist and had a gift for asking questions of people and truly listening to their answers, making them feel that they were the most important person in the world at that moment.
In the last several years of his life, Mr. Jackson was blessed to have four wonderful caregivers who enabled him to remain living in his own home, which allowed him to maintain a high quality of life until he passed. He loved them all dearly, and they loved him right back.
In addition to his parents and his wife Pauline, he was preceded in death by a brother, J. Edwin Jackson, and a sister, Barbara J. Flournoy.
He is survived by a son, W. Edwin Jackson (and wife Janice), of Camp Hill, PA, a daughter, Alice J. Campbell (and husband Kevin Campbell) of Northfield, IL; five grandchildren, Sarah I. Jackson of Washington, DC, Emily J. Sarraf (and husband Sean T. Sarraf) of Camp Hill, PA, C. Robert Campbell (and wife Courtney Erland) of Reston, VA, Samuel G. Campbell of Atlanta, GA, and Margaret C. Williams (and husband Tyler Williams) of Indianapolis, IN; and a great-granddaughter, Sloane Reed Sarraf, of Camp Hill, PA.