Rob Hiaasen

{{Infobox person

| name = Rob Hiaasen

| birth_date = February 9, 1959

| birth_place = Plantation, Florida, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and given age|2018|6|28|59}}

| death_place = Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.

| death_cause = Gunshot wound

| education = University of Florida

| occupation = {{hlist|Journalist|editor}}

| employer = The Capital

| spouse = {{marriage|Maria Mills|1985}}

| children = 3

| relatives = Carl Hiaasen (brother)

| awards = Knight Journalism Fellow

}}

Robert Keith Hiaasen (February 9, 1959{{cite web|url=http://www.capitalgazette.com/lifestyle/ac-cn-hiaasen-column-0211-story.html|title=Rob Hiaasen: Little did I know|last=Hiaasen|first=Rob|date=February 10, 2018|website=Capital Gazette|access-date=July 3, 2018}} – June 28, 2018) was an American journalist and assistant editor at The Capital, a newspaper published in Annapolis, Maryland.{{Cite news|url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/anne-arundel/bs-md-rob-hiaasen-20180628-story.html|title=Capital Gazette shooting victim Rob Hiaasen: A joyful stylist, a generous mentor|last=Marbella|first=Jean|date=June 28, 2018|work=The Baltimore Sun|access-date=June 29, 2018}} He also taught at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/rob-hiaasen-a-great-colleague-and-a-real-craftsman-slain-in-gazette-shooting/2018/06/28/79146d8e-7b2f-11e8-80be-6d32e182a3bc_story.html|title=Rob Hiaasen, remembered as a 'great colleague and a real craftsman'|last=Ruane|first=Michael E.|date=June 28, 2018|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=June 29, 2018|issn=0190-8286}} A native of Plantation, then a rural suburb of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Hiaasen began his career at The Palm Beach Post before joining The Baltimore Sun as a feature writer and where he later wrote a regular column.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/opinion/sunday/capital-gazette-rob-hiaasen.html|title=At the Capital Gazette, the Death of a Reporter's Reporter|last=Lippman|first=Laura|date=June 29, 2018|work=The New York Times|access-date=July 7, 2018}} He was shot and killed at work at The Capital during the Capital Gazette shooting.

Early life and education

Hiaasen was from Fort Lauderdale, Florida,{{Cite news|url=https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article214028324.html|title=Rob Hiaasen, journalist killed in Maryland newsroom shooting, had deep South Florida ties|last=Ovalle|first=David|date=June 28, 2018|work=The Miami Herald|access-date=June 29, 2018}} born in 1959 and raised in Plantation, Florida, then a rural suburb of Fort Lauderdale. He had an older brother, the novelist Carl Hiaasen, and two older sisters. He graduated from the University of Florida.

Career

Hiaasen began his journalism career at WPTF in Raleigh, North Carolina, working there from 1984 to 1985.{{cite web|url=https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article214058719.html|title='Just a great guy': Former colleagues at Raleigh's WPTF recall slain journalist Rob Hiaasen|last=Cain|first=Brooke|date=June 29, 2018|website=The News & Observer|access-date=July 7, 2018}} In the 1990s, Hiaasen worked at The Palm Beach Post where he covered local politics. He conducted an award-winning investigation into the case of David J. Acer, the Jensen Beach dentist who allegedly infected his patients with HIV.{{cite web|url=https://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/rob-hiassen-exemplary-life-violent-death-annapolis/18LvKu6tKrH7W7K6pX0psM/|title=Rob Hiaasen: An exemplary life, a violent death in Annapolis|last=Cerabino|first=Frank|date=June 28, 2018|website=The Palm Beach Post|access-date=June 29, 2018}} Hiaasen also worked at radio stations in the South.

In 1993, he moved to Maryland to become a feature writer at The Baltimore Sun.{{Cite news|url=http://www.newsweek.com/remembering-capital-gazette-shooting-victims-editor-among-killed-1000712|title=Remembering the victims of the Capital Gazette shooting|last=Pignataro|first=Juliana Rose|date=June 28, 2018|work=Newsweek|access-date=June 29, 2018}} Hiaasen later became a columnist where he wrote in-depth stories such as one about Roger H. Martin, who took an unusual sabbatical from a career as a university administrator to become a fresh student at St. John's College.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/racingodysseusco00mart|url-access=registration|title=Racing Odysseus: A College President Becomes a Freshman Again|last=Martin|first=Roger H.|date=September 2, 2008|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-94207-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/racingodysseusco00mart/page/248 248]|language=en}} Hiaasen also wrote considerably about Kirk Bloodworth, a death row inmate who was the first in the United States to be cleared of wrongdoing through DNA evidence. He was a staff reporter for the Baltimore Sun for 15 years.{{Cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/06/28/capital-gazette-shooting-journalist-rob-hiaasen-victims/744487002/|title=Capital Gazette shooting victims: 'Gifted' assistant editor, mother of four, new hire among those dead|last1=Shannon|first1=Joel|date=June 28, 2018|work=USA Today|access-date=July 2, 2018|last2=Jansen|first2=Bart|last3=James|first3=Mike}}

He wrote a short fiction story entitled, "Over My Dead Body". It was published in 2006 in Baltimore Noir (Akashic Books), a collection of stories about the city written by several Baltimore Sun journalists including Laura Lippman, who also served as the editor of the book.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ufbXAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA210|title=Viewing America|last=Bigsby|first=C. W. E.|date=October 10, 2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-04393-0|pages=210|language=en}} A novel, Float Plan, was published posthumously in September 2018, with proceeds donated to Everytown for Gun Safety.{{cite news |last1=McCauley |first1=Mary Carole |title=For the family of slain Capital Gazette editor, publishing his novel is a 'Float Plan' |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/anne-arundel/bs-fe-hiaasen-float-plan-20180905-story.html |access-date=December 19, 2018 |work=The Baltimore Sun}}

Hiaasen joined The Capital in 2010 as a Sunday columnist and assistant editor and also worked as an adjunct professor at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism.{{cite web|url=https://merrill.umd.edu/about-merrill/staff-faculty/rob-hiaasen/|title=Rob Hiaasen|date=November 27, 2017|website=Philip Merrill College of Journalism|publisher=University of Maryland|access-date=June 30, 2018}}

Personal life and death

In June 1985, Hiaasen married Maria Hiaasen (née Mills), a former journalist and English teacher. Together, they had three children. His older brother, Carl Hiaasen, is an author and journalist, known for writing and publishing Hoot. Rob Hiaasen was a resident of Timonium, Maryland.

On June 28, 2018, Hiaasen was one of five people who were shot and killed during the Capital Gazette shooting. It was his wife's birthday.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Capital-Gazette-Shooting-Victims-Maryland-Hiaasen-486892771.html|title=4 Journalists, Sales Assistant Killed at Maryland Newspaper|last1=McFadden|first1=David|date=June 28, 2018|work=NBC4 Washington|access-date=June 29, 2018|last2=Finley|first2=Ben}}

Awards

Hiaasen was a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford.

Selected works

{{Cite book|title=Baltimore Noir|last=Hiaasen|first=Rob|date=2006|publisher=Akashic Books|isbn=978-1-936070-19-0|editor-last=Lippman|editor-first=Laura|editor-link=Laura Lippman|pages=60–71|language=en|chapter=Over My Dead Body|author-mask=1|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jR0hAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT60}}