Rob Hiaasen

Robert Keith Hiaasen (February 9, 1959 – June 28, 2018) was an American journalist and assistant editor at The Capital, a newspaper published in Annapolis, Maryland. He also taught at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. 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. 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, 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. In the 1990s, Hiaasen worked at The Palm Beach Post where he covered local politics. Hiaasen also worked at radio stations in the South. 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. 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 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. A novel, Float Plan, was published posthumously in September 2018, with proceeds donated to Everytown for Gun Safety.

Hiaasen joined The Capital in 2010 as a Sunday columnist and assistant editor

Personal life and death In June 1985, Hiaasen married Maria Hiaasen (née Mills),

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

Selected works