Robert W. Chandler

Robert W. Sawyer owned and published The Bend Bulletin from 1919 to 1953.

Robert W. Chandler (May 12, 1921 – July 12, 1996) was an American journalist, businessman, and philanthropist.

He was the editor and publisher of The Bulletin, a daily newspaper in Bend, Oregon.

He ran the newspaper for 43 years.

With the Bulletin as a starting point, he founded Western Communications, Inc., a company that owns and publishes newspapers in Oregon and California.

Among his various efforts in the field, he served as president of the national Society of Professional Journalists.

He was also a major donor to the High Desert Museum in Bend.

Chandler was born on May 12, 1921, in Marysville, California.

He grew up on the family's farm near Yuba City, California.

He attended Stanford University, earning a degree in journalism.

During World War II, Chandler was a special agent in the United States Army's Counter Intelligence Corps.

While in the Army, he served in Australia, New Guinea, the Philippines, Korea, and Japan.

After leaving the Army, Chandler worked for a weekly newspaper that served the Burney and Fall River Mills area in northern California.

Later, he took a job on the staff of the San Francisco Chronicle.

He also worked as a reporter and bureau manager for United Press International in a series of assignments in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Boise, Helena, and Portland, Oregon.

Chandler also worked for The Denver Post for a time.

In 1953, he put the newspaper up for sale.

Sawyer received offers from several large newspaper chains, but eventually sold the newspaper to Chandler.

To make the purchase affordable, Sawyer only required a $6,000 down payment.

Soon after he bought the paper in 1953, he expanded the photoengraving facilities.

After acquiring The Bend Bulletin in 1953, he slowly expanded his newspaper holdings.

In 1956, he replaced the paper's flatbed press with a new rotary press that printed 13,000 32-page sections per hour.

The new press also allowed the paper to print photographs in color.

Chandler ran the newspaper for the next 43 years, first as The Bend Bulletin and after 1963 as The Bulletin.

During his tenure, Chandler brought new technology into his newspaper operation.

In 1966, Chandler moved The Bulletin to a new building on Hill Street in the southern part of Bend.

As part of the move, Chandler installed a new offset press.

The new press ended the need to produce hot-lead cast type.

It also improved the quality of the newspaper's photographs.

That same year, Chandler also began using wire service photos to supplement photograph taken by the paper's staff photographers.

In the 1970s, he installed video display terminals to receive electronic feeds from the wire services.

A new Gross Urbanite offset press was installed in 1980.

This new system could print 20,000 sections an hour.

Chandler's interest in technology was not limited to printing machines.

In the 1980s, he replaced the video displays with computers.

In 1993, a new information systems department was added to The Bulletin organization.

In 1996, The Bulletin established its presence on the internet by activating the bendbulletin.com domain.

This gave the newspaper its own website, and provided its staff with e-mail connectivity.

Chandler was the founder Western Communications, Inc., a corporation that owns a chain of local newspapers in Oregon and California.

He was inducted into the Oregon Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2006.