Ex-Tribune-Review Sunday editor remembered as a ‘giant of a man’
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William T. “Bill” Dymond, the first editor of the Sunday Tribune-Review, was a man great in stature and personality, a man who cared deeply about his family and community, his friends said.
“He was a giant in so many ways. Not only in personal stature, but a giant in the community. He was a giant with his family as a father and a husband,” said Don Orlando, a longtime friend and former communications director of Saint Vincent College near Latrobe.
He and his wife, Philomena “Phil,” a former president of the Latrobe Chamber of Commerce, were fixtures in civic events in the Latrobe community, Orlando said.
“He was a local celebrity,” Orlando said.
Dymond, 89, formerly of Latrobe died Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, in the Baltimore area.
Dymond was born Aug. 11, 1931, in Nicholson, north of Scranton. He was a Navy veteran who served during the Korean War era aboard the USS Fremont. While in the Navy, he attended Naval radio communications school.
He wanted to work in the radio business, so he went to broadcasting school in New York City, where he was told to take the first job that became available.
As fate would have it, that job turned out to be at WTRA, a small station in Latrobe, which he once saw on a train trip passing from New York to Chicago. He advanced from an announcer to program director to general manager.
Those who heard Dymond on the radio knew he was tailor-made for the job.
“What a voice he had for radio,” said longtime friend Ralph Scalise of Latrobe, who has known the Dymonds since 1969. “He had the absolute perfect announcer’s voice for radio. It was melodious.”
Another longtime friend, George Shaner of Greensburg, described Dymond as having “a voice that was so commanding.”
The station happened to be owned by Kate Mahady. She also had a real estate business where a young Seton Hill College co-ed by the name of Philomena Cirucci worked. The couple were married in June 1957.
Before he joined the Tribune-Review, he worked for the Latrobe Bulletin, where he worked with legendary Bulletin editor Vince Quatrini. He started as a reporter then later became the managing editor.
Dymond left for a job at the Tribune-Review, where he was a news editor before becoming the founding editor of the Sunday Tribune-Review, which published its inaugural edition in May 1974. He held that position until retiring in 1994.
His assistant editor for a number of years was Bob Broderick of Connellsville. “Bill was a class act who managed his staff with respect and understanding, and his staff reciprocated,” Broderick said.
“Bill was satisfied with nothing less than a quality product. He not only laid the foundation for the Sunday paper, but he built upon it so well before his retirement,” Broderick said.
“We not only lost a great newspaperman, we have lost a very caring human being,” he said.
To Trib Total Media Executive Editor Sue McFarland, who worked with Dymond when he was Sunday editor, “Bill was a dedicated newsman and no matter who worked alongside him, they came away thinking about what a tremendously kind and generous person he was.
“He was a mentor for many young journalists, and in the early days of my career, he was incredibly supportive of me,” McFarland said.
Robin Stahl Jennings, who was working for Dymond as a student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and later become editor of the Sunday Focus magazine, said her former boss had a way of bringing out the best in people.
“He saw the strength in the people that worked for him, and he provided a forum for those strengths,” Jennings recalled. “I found him to be very thoughtful … you could have a conversation with him.”
Orlando said he loved working with Dymond on ongoing projects about Saint Vincent College. Dymond, he said, would ensure the effort would benefit the paper’s readers as well as the college.
Shaner recalled how Bill and Phil were involved in the Saint Vincent College summer theater “from the very first one in the 1970s.”
“He was a classy guy,” Shaner said. “He was able to maintain his sense of humor and was able to laugh at himself.”
“I’ve always said he was the nicest guy in the world. We were best friends,” Phil Dymond said.
He also is survived by a son, William T. Dymond Jr. of Winter Park, Fla.; and two daughters, Michele Heacox of Lutherville, Md., and Lynn Hutchinson of Woolford, Md.; eight grandchildren; two sisters and three brothers. He was preceded in death by a son, Joseph, in 2019.
A memorial service will be held at Saint Vincent Basilica on the Saint Vincent College campus at a date to be announced.