William R. Clabby

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William R. Clabby (1931–1997) was an American journalist and editor for The Wall Street Journal and a longtime executive at Dow Jones. He shared the 1961 Gerald Loeb Award for Newspapers.

Clabby was born in 1931 in Waterloo, Iowa, to Pearl Marie (Bloes) and James Francis Clabby. He grew up in Iowa with his siblings and showed early talent in writing and photography. He attended St. John’s School and Sacred Heart High School, graduating in 1949, and contributed to his school papers. He began college at Iowa State Teachers College and later transferred to the University of Iowa, where he served as editor in chief of The Daily Iowan during his senior year. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism in 1953 and was elected to Omicron Delta Kappa, a national honorary society.

Clabby joined The Wall Street Journal in Chicago as a copyreader before being promoted to assistant news editor in 1955. In 1961, he became the assistant managing editor of the Southwest edition, and he helped the Journal win the Gerald Loeb Award for Newspapers that year. In 1966 he was named managing editor of the New York City bureau and a special writer for the paper’s page one department, and he began pioneering satellite news services for the Journal.

In 1971 Clabby became the managing editor of the AP-Dow Jones Economic Report and Financial Wire. He also led the DJ News-Recall project, a joint venture that created a computerized story retrieval service. In 1977 he was appointed general manager of news services for Dow Jones & Company, and in 1980 he became vice president of the Dow Jones Financial Information Services Group. The Journal launched The Wall Street Journal Business Report in 1978, and Clabby served as an editorial advisor for the program. He also served on the board of AP-Dow Jones Telerate Co. in 1983.

In 1992 Dow Jones restructured its information services, and Clabby was named senior vice president and executive editor of information services, responsible for news operations within the Resources group. He retired in 1996.

Clabby married Joann Carroll in 1952 while they were in college. They had ten children. The family moved to Marietta, Georgia, in 1996. William R. Clabby died there on December 9, 1997, from complications of Parkinson’s disease.