William R. Clabby

William R. Clabby (1931 – December 9, 1997) was an American journalist and editor for The Wall Street Journal, and an executive for various Dow Jones news companies. He shared the 1961 Gerald Loeb Award for Newspapers.

Early life

William Clabby was born in 1931 in Waterloo, Iowa, to Pearl Marie (Bloes) and James Francis Clabby. He was the eldest brother to his sister Joan and brothers James J. and Richard John.

Clabby attended St. John's School and Sacred Heart High School, graduating in 1949. In high school, he was a writer and photographer for the school newspaper, the Banner.

While attending Iowa State Teachers College, Clabby served as the associate editor of the school newspaper, The College Eye. In May 1953, he received the second place award from the Theta Sigma Phi professional journalism sorority for the best photograph published in the Iowan during the past year. Clabby was elected into the Omicron Delta Kappa national men's honorary society before receiving his B.A. in Journalism in June 1953.

Clabby supported himself for a period of time working for Rath Packing Company. The Young Democrats accused the student council of mismanaging the March election, allowing several students to be elected by illegal methods.

The board cleared Clabby of all charges on May 22, finding the charges were unsubstantiated and that any errors in Clabby's reporting were not "a purposeful or malicious distortion or omission of facts, or an intentional violation of the rules of objective journalism."

Career The Chicago bureau of The Wall Street Journal offered Clabby a job shortly before he graduated from university. He started as a copyreader before being promoted to assistant news editor in 1955. That year, he was part of the Journal team that received the 1961 Gerald Loeb Award for Newspapers. He was promoted to managing editor of the New York City bureau and a special writer for the page one department in 1966. During his tenure, Clabby pioneered satellite news services for the Journal. Clabby took on the additional role of managing editor of the new service.

Dow Jones launched the television program The Wall Street Journal Business Report in 1978. Clabby served as an editorial advisor for the show.

The Associated Press, Dow Jones, and Telerate created AP-Dow Jones Telerate Co. in 1983 to distribute Telerate's computerized financial information services outside the U.S. and Canada, with Clabby serving on the board of directors. In 1992, Dow Jones restructured the subsidiary and its Information Services Group into three operating groups: Dow Jones-Telerate, Resources, and Business Information Services. Clabby was named the senior vice president and executive editor of information services responsible for news operations within the Resources group. Joann was the daughter of Mildred L. (Conger) and Edmund J. Carroll.

The couple's first child was born in May 1953 while Clabby was defending his student council election reporting.

The couple moved to Marietta, Georgia in 1996, where Clabby died of complications from Parkinson's disease on December 9, 1997.