Former longtime publisher of The Fayetteville Observer and Fayetteville Publishing Co., Ramon L. Yarborough Sr., died Monday at the age of 90.
“Ramon Yarborough led Fayetteville Publishing Co. for more than three decades with a personal touch that endeared him to all employees and with a focus on quality to serve our readers throughout the Cape Fear region,” said Yarborough’s nephew, Charles Broadwell, who succeeded Yarborough as publisher of the family-owned company.
Yarborough retired from Fayetteville Publishing Co. and The Fayetteville Observer in September 2000, after 35 years, according to remarks read into congressional records in 2000 by former Rep. Mike McIntyre.
Yarborough was a Fayetteville native who began working at Fayetteville Publishing Co. in September 1965 as its vice president, McIntyre said in 2000.
Yarborough led the company after the 1971 death of his father-in-law, Richard Lilly, and created The Fayetteville Times morning paper in 1973 while the Observer was published in the afternoon.
The Times was merged with the afternoon Observer in 1990. The Fayetteville Observer-Times became The Fayetteville Observer after the company completed an expansion project with new printing presses in 1999, continuing the publishing of the state’s oldest newspaper, which has been around since 1816.
Under Yarborough’s leadership, Fayetteville Publishing moved from its Hay Street location to Whitfield Street in January 1978, allowing the company “to grow for decades, including the installation of modern printing presses and expanded production operations before his retirement as publisher,” Broadwell said.
Remembered by former employees
Former Fayetteville Observer general manager Tony Chavonne started working at the paper in 1979 until his retirement in 2004, with most of his 25 years spent working closely with Yarborough.
“He led that company and that newspaper through tremendous growth with just exceptional leadership, and he did it in just a humble way,” Chavonne said. “His relationship and compassion for employees is so rare in today’s world, but he knew every employee by name. He’d get every employee a birthday card. He was an exceptional human being who built a rapport with the people who worked with him.”
Former Observer photographer Johnny Horne worked for the paper part-time in 1972, before joining full-time in 1973 when Yarborough started the Fayetteville Times morning edition.
“That was a huge thing,” Horne said in a phone interview. “A group of investors were about to start up an a.m. paper, and he put it on the fast track to start up the Fayetteville Times in the summer in 1973.”
Horne remained at the paper through its name change and Broadwell’s retirement until it sold in spring 2016.
“So I worked with Mr. Yarborough for a lot of years and always had a good connection with him,” Horne said.
Horne said that despite Yarborough being in the front office and not in the newsroom for daily contact, he’d periodically check-in, even after Yarborough’s retirement.
“I’d get an email from him about three or four times a year after he retired, and he’d ask ‘How are you doing?’ He would always send birthday cards and things like that. He was just a prince of a guy,” Horne said.
Former Fayetteville Observer Editor Mike Arnholt started working at the morning newspaper in 1976, saw it later merge with the afternoon paper, and continued working there until 2014.
“Ramon was beloved by the employees at the Fayetteville Publishing Co.,” Arnholt said. “He was one of those bosses who knew the names of everyone in the building, from the newsroom to the pressroom, to advertising, circulation and all around.”
Arnholt said he often saw Yarborough making “his rounds during the day to check with various departments and chat with people.”
“He had a common, personal touch with the staff,” Arnholt said. “Ramon was a smart man who was the type of manager, in my opinion, who knew how to hire good people and give them responsibility and authority without feeling like he should step in. He might have wanted to talk about something sensitive coming up that the newsroom was working on, but he trusted your judgment.”
Former Fayetteville Observer Editor Matt Leclercq, who started working at the Observer in 1999, said “Yarborough was a giant in the community whose legacy was profound.”
“For many of the generations of people who have worked at the Observer or Fayetteville Publishing Co. over the years, we consider ourselves to be part of a big family, and I think that is rooted in Mr. Yarborough’s leadership and generosity,” said Leclercq, who was editor of the paper from 2017 to 2019. “He ran a huge company, but he knew every one of us by name, and sent an email every year on your birthday, even long after he retired. He was genuinely interested in how you were doing (and) how is your family.”
Community involvement
Broadwell said that even after Yarborough’s 2000 retirement, he continued to serve as chairman of the board for several years.
Yarborough was also committed to his hometown through his career and service to community causes and organizations, his nephew said.
“He will be remembered for his many acts of personal kindness over the years and for his philanthropic gifts to benefit the greater Fayetteville community,” Broadwell said.
Leclercq agreed.
“Even with all his accomplishments with the business, what stands out the most to me was simply his love for this community, and doing everything he could in his power to make Fayetteville a better place,” Leclercq said.
Throughout his career, Yarborough was active in the community serving on boards and in foundations including the Methodist College Board of Trustees; North Carolina Community College Foundation; Cumberland Community Foundation; the Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex; and the North Carolina Press Association, McIntyre said in 2000.
He was also a member of St. John’s Episcopal Church and the Fayetteville Kiwanis Club.
Mary Holmes, president of the Cumberland Community Foundation, said Yarborough was instrumental in establishing the foundation and joining its board of directors in 1990 when it had just $2 million in assets.
After Yarborough served on the board for 12 years, including being chairman from 2002 to 2003, the foundation’s assets grew to $23 million, Holmes said.
“Getting a community foundation started is hard, and he gave a lot of his own money and also spent a lot of time helping the community understand what the benefits of a community foundation would be,” Holmes said. “Really, his generosity and relationships helped the foundation grow early on.”
Holmes said Yarborough and his late wife were also supporters of arts and local human resource services organizations like Cape Fear Regional Theatre and the Vision Resource Center.
Yarborough was preceded in death by his wife, Virginia Lilly Yarborough, in August 2021.
Yarborough established many endowments at the Cumberland Community Foundation including one in memory of his parents, the Mary B. And Wilson F. Yarborough Family Fund.
After the death of his wife in 2021, Holmes said, Yarborough created an endowment in her memory named the Virginia Lilly Rankin Yarborough Endowment, which supported local homeless nonprofit Fayetteville Area Operation Inasmuch. “His legacy will continue through his beloved family and his philanthropy in the community,” Holmes said. “He was a fun, funny and generous person who will be missed by all who knew him.”
Chavonne said Yarborough lived by a motto of believing that community service was the price to pay for living in the local community.
“I can’t think of anyone who fulfilled that better than Ramon Yarborough,” Chavonne said. “He worked to make the community and company a better place.”
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.
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