July 24, 2019 1100 PM
FORT DAVIS – Bob Dillard, owner and editor of the Jeff Davis County Mountain Dispatch weekly newspaper, passed away Saturday, July 20, in Lubbock. He was 74 years old.
Dillard lived in Fort Davis for the past 43 years and ran the Mountain Dispatch and the Martin County Messenger weekly newspaper in Stanton. At one point he and his wife Christi owned all three newspaper in the tri-county region: Mountain Dispatch, Alpine Avalanche and the Big Bend Sentinel.
Robert Halpern, former owner/editor of the Big Bend Sentinel, is helping the Fort Davis newspaper continue to produce its weekly issues. The Dillards co-owned the Marfa-based newspaper with Pat Ryan and his family when Halpern was asked to help during the summer of 1988. Halpern and his wife, Rosario, acquired the Big Bend Sentinel a few years later, but through the years, both publishers collaborated with each other, sharing articles and photos.
“We watched each other’s backs,” said Halpern.
To read more about Dillard’s life, please read his obituary.
