Beloved Augusta Chronicle outdoors editor Bill Baab dies at age 90
Bill Baab, the longtime sports writer and editor of the Augusta Chronicle with a sportsman’s heart and collector’s soul, has died. He was 90 years old.
Baab, The Chronicle’s outdoors editor for 35 years, wrote weekly newspaper columns for generations of Augusta-area anglers.
Readers followed his valuable fishing information and advice almost like gospel. When Baab first retired in 2000, Waynesboro resident Tyron Morris wrote a letter to The Chronicle mourning the loss of “Reverend Bill.”
David Annis, owner of Belvedere Marine, told The Chronicle at the time that it was not uncommon to read about one of the Baab fishing hot spots and find it packed with fishermen the next day.
Since 2000, Baab continued to help edit the Chronicle’s sports section before returning briefly as fishing editor. I am resigning in June 2022 Generations of colleagues appreciated his quick wit and vast knowledge of local history, though not always with wordplay.
Baab was also a collector; He was considered a “pack rat” who grew up fueling his curiosity about the world through his fascinating accumulation of coins, stamps, books and more. At the age of 14, he won first prize at the Augusta YMCA hobby fair with his seashell collection.
Baab’s collection of collectibles also included unusual pets. According to a 1955 Chronicle story about Baab’s hobbies, Goliath, the 15-pound gopher tortoise, followed his younger sisters to the mailbox every day. The article appeared shortly after he started working as a photocopier at the newspaper.
The collector’s eye from 1969 I turned to antique bottlesespecially those that reveal snippets of local history from the dairies, drugstores, and breweries of the Augusta area. Wrote and published Augusta on Glass, history of the city In 2007, the evolution of glass bottles was described.
In 2014, he and his surviving wife, Bea, donated their 514-piece bottle collection to the Augusta Museum of History. Visitors can still visit the museum’s “Bottles of the Baab” exhibit.
William Henry Baab Jr. was born in Pennsylvania and moved with his family to Augusta in 1940, to a modest house on Heath Street in the Summerville neighborhood.
He graduated from Catholic High School for Boys in 1953 and served briefly in the U.S. Navy before returning to Augusta in 1955. By 1957 he was part of The Chronicle’s writing staff covering general sports assignments, writing book reviews and a weekly cruise column.
He briefly left the newspaper, first to work in public relations for the state of Georgia’s then-Game and Fish Commission, then in 1961 as sports editor of the Thomasville Times-Enterprise in south Georgia.
Baab rejoined The Chronicle in 1964 as outdoors editor.
Funeral arrangements are being completed by Thomas Poteet & Sons Funeral Home, Davis Road.
Shaking through the years: Fishing editor Bill Baab says he is quitting after 60 years in journalism
This article first appeared in the Augusta Chronicle: Augusta outdoor reporter Bill Baab enjoyed local nature and history
