The Press: Succession in Kansas City

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For 35 years, Roy Roberts' throne has stood at the far end of the newsroom of the Kansas City Star, as immovable a fixture as Roberts' 200 Ibs. But last week, with a regal grace, the Star's president and executive editor eased both his bulk and his throne 10 ft. to the right. Into his old place moved Roberts' anointed successor: Editor Richard B. Fowler, a quiet, unassuming man of 60 who has spent 32 years in Roy Roberts' considerable shade.

Like most royal successions, the Star's was likely to change little more than the names on the palace stationery. "Hell, I was hand-raised by Roy," said Fowler, a Sedalia, Mo., farm boy who sold poultry before coming to the Star as a reporter in 1930. "I don't think I could separate my own ideas from his."

Such sentiments do not qualify Fowler as a yes man but as a pragmatist, who understands that he may fill Roberts' office but never his role as Mr. Kansas City. In fact, Dick Fowler's first editorial command, after trying out a chair designed for Roy Roberts' ample posterior, was to call for a smaller size. "It pushes forward too much," he said. "I'd rather not fight it." Fowler later explained what this really meant: "Nobody's going to replace Roy Roberts. He's not the type that fades away."

Fowler was expressing an eminently practical view. Having escalated himself to the title of board chairman, Roy Roberts served immediate notice that he has no intention of playing figurehead. "I'm going to get out from underfoot a while," he said as he prepared to leave for a ten-week cruise of the Pacific. "I don't want to be breathing down the necks of the new team as they take over. But I'll be back, don't worry about that. I'll just ooze in the back door to keep an eye on things. When you reach 75, you stay on till they carry you out."