Former AP President Fuller Dies at 79

The former president and CEO of The Associated Press, Keith Fuller, died from Alzheimer’s at the age of 79.
As head of the AP from 1976-1985, Fuller oversaw an expansion of its services, including increasing the number of overseas bureaus and expanding the range of live broadcast news. During his tenure, the percentage of the nation’s newspapers with daily circulation that the AP served grew from approximately 70% to 90%. He also oversaw a change in technology from typewriters and teletype to computers and satellite transmission.
Fuller joined the AP in 1949 and served as a reporter, bureau chief, broadcast executive, as the group’s personnel director, and as chief of the AP’s commercial photo arm and Newsfeatures.
His other accomplishments include directing the AP’s coverage of the 1957 school desegregation crisis in Arkansas, for which the group won a Pulitzer; supervising the editing of “The Torch is Passed,” the AP’s account of President Kennedy’s assassination, which sold 5 million copies; and leading the group’s board of directors on trips to news locations around the world. He also served on the board of directors for Gannett after his retirement.
During WWII he flew on a B-17 bomber and was shot down over France. For 14 months he was a prisoner of war in a camp that was eventually liberated by General George Patton and the U.S. Third Army.