Ronnie Dugger, trailblazing founder of The Texas Observer, dies at 95

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Ronnie Dugger, the founding editor of The Texas Observer once referred to as the “godfather of progressive journalism in Texas,” died Tuesday in Austin. He was 95.

His death was related to Alzheimer’s disease complications, said his daughter, New York Times health and science editor Celia W. Dugger.

Dugger launched the Observer in 1954, when he was just 24 and a recent graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. He wanted to create not just a newspaper, but something to serve “the rolling, ongoing community of liberal and left, radical, some centrist and conservative, decent people, still moored in this still oligarchical political hellhole, beautiful Texas,” he wrote in the Observer in 2014, recalling the time when the publication was created.

He wrote the Observer’s mission statement, which is still displayed on its website today: “We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it.”

Gus Bova, the Observer’s editor-in-chief, described Dugger as a “trailblazing journalist in Texas.”

“He insisted on covering stories that, in the 1950s, the major daily papers wouldn't touch. He drove around Texas in this broken-down little old car, finding stories of KKK violence in East Texas or issues faced by Mexican Americans in San Antonio or the border,” Bova said. “Now we see journalism like that...But then it was really something different that he started.”

The Austin-based Observer has been awarded multiple national awards in its 71-year history. The New York Times Book Review once called it “that outpost of reason in the Southwest.” In 2023, the publication almost shut down because of funding issues, but then it crowdsourced more than $300,000 and continued its operations.

Ceila Dugger said “journalism runs in the family.” Dugger’s grandson, Max Bearak, also works at The New York Times. She said she was inspired to join the profession by her father’s belief in the power of the press.

“Our house was just alive with people who were in the thick of Texas politics, trying to make this a better state,” she said. “It was impossible not to be infected as a young person by all of that.”

Dugger was known for his indefatigable work ethic. In a 1974 op-ed, Dugger’s former colleague, historian Lawrence Goodwyn, reflected on how Dugger stood out from other young journalists, in their early thirties at the time, who were already worn out because of the high-paced reporting in Texas politics. Goodwyn recalled a conversation with one of them who said, “I don’t know how Dugger does it.”

Jim Hightower, who was the Observer’s editor in the 1970s, recalled that at that time, there was barely any coverage of progressive candidates in Texas. Dugger wanted to change that.

“His integrity was not sanctimonious. It was not some stiff concept to put on a wall...but honesty and truth,” he said. “His belief in journalism that guided my own ever since is that you tell the truth. You tell what you see, what you hear, what you smell. And do so with as much liveliness as you possibly can.”

Dugger was concerned with more than just Texas politics. He wrote biographies of Lyndon B. Johnson and Ronald Reagan. And he was strongly against nuclear weapons, as reflected in his first book, “Dark Star: Hiroshima Reconsidered in the Life of Claude Eatherly of Lincoln Park, Texas.”

Bova said that up through last year, he was still talking about nuclear weapon threats, democracy and journalism, and would read The New York Times every morning.

Outside of journalism, Dugger was passionate about Russian literature, loved reading, and “wrote thousands of poems that were never published,” his daughter said.

On top of all the national recognition Dugger received throughout his career, Joe Holley wrote in the Observer's obituary for Dugger, “he will always be associated with the scrappy little Austin-based political journal created in his image.”

Disclosure: New York Times and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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