Shipp, William R.
Bill Shipp, a journalist who amused Georgians and tormented politicians for more than half a century with his acid-dipped pen died Saturday, July 8. He was 89.
William R. "Bill" Shipp was a newsman when The Atlanta Journal and the Constitution - then separate afternoon and morning newspapers - were read from north Georgia's mountains to the Florida line and newspaper columnists were the media rock stars that are found now only on the internet. Shipp saw politics as a contact sport and delighted in writing out loud what most Georgians were thinking or maybe saying only in personal conversations - calling legislators "dirty rats," castigating them by name and by legislative event for dawdling, wasting money or floating bone-headed ideas. Or, sometimes, he patted them on the back and peddled their ideas if he thought they were good ones.
"I will tell you that before there was such a thing as Google that Bill Shipp was the Google of Georgia politics and its institutions. He knew everything about everybody," said former state legislator and governor Roy Barnes.
After studying journalism at the University of Georgia and serving in the Army, Shipp joined The Atlanta Constitution in 1956, working his way up before devoting himself to the political beat.
Shipp also appeared on TV after the late Dick Williams, Shipp's rival editorial columnist on the afternoon newspaper, invited him to be part of "The Georgia Gang," the televised public affairs program that Williams hosted on WAGA-TV Channel 5.
Shipp ended his long career at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1987, and struck out on his own, starting "Bill Shipp's Georgia," one of the earliest political publications in the digital world.
"That's what I'm proudest of," Shipp said in a 2006 interview. Shipp sold the venture in 2000, but continued his twice-a-week columns, which were carried in 60 state newspapers, for years.
Read more about Bill Shipp on ajc.com
