Robert P. Laurence
Journalist
Robert P. Laurence covered city hall, politics and rock ‘n’ roll music for The San Diego Union (later the Union-Tribune) for 35 years. He found his nirvana as the paper’s TV critic, a job he approached in the spirit of the rude kid sitting in the back of the class.
It was sometime in high school that Bob discovered he had a knack for writing. He soon decided this was a skill that could be used for earning a living as a newspaper reporter. It was certainly more enjoyable than most other forms of work.
Bob has a B.A. degree in journalism from San Francisco State University and an M.A. in political science from San Jose State. His first reporting job was at the weekly Milpitas Post in what is now known as Silicon Valley; he later covered California’s nascent environmental movement for United Press International. When his wife, Susan White, was hired as an editor for ProPublica in New York City, the couple moved to Brooklyn for a three-year stay.
While Susan worked in Manhattan, Bob spent his days exploring the city and reporting what he found in 86 lengthy emails to friends that he later collected in an ebook, “Letters From Brooklyn: A Slightly Irregular Memoir of Everyday Life in New York City with a Tour Guide Thrown in.”
