RICHARD E. DOYLE Answering difficult sports questions around the Press Herald sports department comes easy, almost naturally, to Dick Doyle. Doyle’s your man for “Instant Answers.
A knit brow, a closed eye, a momentary pause are Doyle’s responding trademarks, then the facts tumble forth. There is much more though to this mild-mannered man who literally has spent a lifetime in sports and so graciously shares with the public and grateful fellow staffers his encyclopedia knowledge.
No sports specialist, Dick was soaking up a wide range of athletics from early Nathan Clifford School days. His favorite sport is baseball which makes this sportswriter's entrance into this years Maine Baseball Hall of Fame so meaningful.
While his prose has served well readers of the three Portland papers, poetically inclined Doyle indulged his “other writing self’ for special occasions or persons. His poem of Freddie Harlow isa masterpiece.
He served in World War II, mostly with the 95th Infantry Division. He was a late-bloomer in football and basketball! at Deering High before a brief fling at Bowdoin. His wife’s name is Anne and they have four children: Nancy, Peter, Joanne and.Timmy.
Doyle was Maine's Sportswriter of the Year in 1961. The public feeling toward Dick perhaps was best expressed by former Deering athlete and longtime umpire Phil Skillin.
From Detroit, Skillin wrote: “No one more deserves such honor (entrance to the Baseball Hall). Since | have been connected with sports and an avid reader of the Portland Press Herald and Express going back to Ted Small, there never has been
in my mind a sports editor or writer more devoted to his job nor one who has done a more splendid job overall.”
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