Lloyd Allen Dobyns Jr. (March 12, 1936 – August 22, 2021) was an American news reporter and correspondent. He worked for
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...
from 1969 to 1986, hosting ''
Weekend'', ''
NBC News Overnight
''NBC News Overnight'' was a television news program on the NBC television network that aired weekday mornings from 1:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. Central) Mondays through Thursdays and 2:00 a.m. to 3:00&n ...
'', and ''
Monitor''.
Early life
Dobyns was born in
Newport News,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...
, on March 12, 1936.
He attended
Fork Union Military Academy, graduating in the Class of 1953, and served as a
lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...
in the
US Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, c ...
for two years. He then studied journalism at
Washington and Lee University
, mottoeng = "Not Unmindful of the Future"
, established =
, type = Private liberal arts university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.092 billion (2021)
, president = William C. Dudley
, provost = Lena Hill
, city = Lexing ...
, obtaining a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
in 1957.
Career
After graduating, Dobyns started his broadcasting career in his hometown with
WDBJ
WDBJ (channel 7) is a television station licensed to Roanoke, Virginia, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Roanoke–Lynchburg, Virginia, Lynchburg media market, market. It is owned by Gray Television alongside Danville, Virginia ...
. He went on to serve as an anchor at
WAVY television in
Portsmouth/Norfolk/Newport News in the 1960s, eventually becoming its news director. At the end of the decade, he relocated to New York, where he briefly worked for
WNYW
WNYW (channel 5) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Secaucus, New Jersey–licensed MyNetworkTV flagship ...
as managing editor.
[
Dobyns worked for NBC from 1969 to 1986.][ In 1980 he was a reporter on the successful TV documentary, '' If Japan can... Why can't we?'' about the reasons Japan was a manufacturing powerhouse as US industry struggled to keep up.][ He hosted '' Weekend'' from 1974 to 1979 and '']NBC News Overnight
''NBC News Overnight'' was a television news program on the NBC television network that aired weekday mornings from 1:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. Central) Mondays through Thursdays and 2:00 a.m. to 3:00&n ...
'' with Linda Ellerbee (1982-83) before being replaced by Bill Schechner. He was the anchor of NBC's short-lived, hour-long '' Monitor'' in 1983.[ The series was cancelled after receiving poor television ratings. He retired from NBC in 1986.][
Dobyns subsequently got involved in the Total Quality Management movement, partnering with W. Edwards Deming. He later worked at the Norfolk '']Virginian-Pilot
''The Virginian-Pilot'' is the daily newspaper for Norfolk, Virginia. Commonly known as ''The Pilot'', it is Virginia's largest daily. It serves the five cities of South Hampton Roads as well as several smaller towns across southeast Virgini ...
'' newspaper and taught journalism at Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the c ...
, Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = " Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County
, LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham
, area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...
, where served as the Ayers Chair in the Department of Communication from the late 1990s to the early 2000s.[
]
Later life
Dobyns began hosting podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...
s for Colonial Williamsburg
Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting a part of the historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has 7300 employees at this location a ...
in 2005, interviewing various staff members about their particular specialty at the restored colonial capital of Virginia.[Colonial Williamsburg podcasts with Lloyd Dobyns]
/ref> He initially did not know what a podcast was, but warmed to the idea when he found out they were similar to the interviews he conducted in the past.
Dobyns died on August 22, 2021, in Mebane, North Carolina
Mebane is a city located mostly in Alamance County, North Carolina, United States, and partly in Orange County. The town was named for Alexander Mebane, an American Revolutionary War general and member of the U.S. Congress. It was incorporat ...
. He was 85, and suffered from complications caused by multiple strokes prior to his death.[
]
Awards
Dobyns won 28 national awards including a George Foster Peabody medal.[ In presenting a 1975 award to ''Weekend'', the Peabody committee noted that, "Felicity of style and polished journalistic professionalism are the distinctive wellsprings at the source of 'Weekend', produced and written for NBC by ]Reuven Frank
Reuven Frank (7 December 1920 – 5 February 2006) was an American broadcast news executive.
Life and career
Born Israel Reuven Frank (he later dropped his first name) to a Jewish family in Montreal, Quebec, he earned a bachelor's degree in soci ...
and Lloyd Dobyns. A once-a-month magazine of television, inquiring into the off-trail, 'Weekend' is hereby honored not only for its content, but also as an instructive example of how the language can be employed with grace and precision."
Dobyns' work also earned a DuPont-Columbia Award, a 1982 Humanitas Prize
The Humanitas Prize is an award for film and television writing, and is given to writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced and meaningful way. It began in 1974 with Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser—also the founder of Paulist P ...
and two Christophers.[ In 1977 he was inducted into the Fork Union Military Academy Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame in 2003.][Lloyd Dobyns Bio at the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame (2003)]
He was also granted an honorary doctorate of humane letters by the University of North Carolina
The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sys ...
.[
]
Books
Lloyd Dobyns co-authored two books with Clare Crawford-Mason:
*''Quality or Else: The Revolution in World Business'' (1993)
*''Thinking About Quality: Progress, Wisdom, and the Deming Philosophy'' (1994)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dobyns, Lloyd
1936 births
2021 deaths
American male journalists
American television reporters and correspondents
Jacksonville State University faculty
NBC News people
Peabody Award winners
People from Newport News, Virginia
United States Army officers
Washington and Lee University alumni