Bill Ringle spoke at a summer 2009 gathering to support DavidsonNews.net. Click to listen to his remarks about the news business and local news on the web. (David Boraks/DavidsonNews.net)

William M. Ringle Jr.  a longtime Washington and foreign affairs reporter who accompanied President Nixon on his groundbreaking trip to China in 1972, died Monday, Sept. 5, at The Pines at Davidson. He was 88.

A funeral mass is scheduled Friday, Sept. 9, at 2 p.m. at St. Therese Catholic Church, 217 Brawley School Road
Mooresville. A reception for friends is planned at The Pines at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

Mr. Ringle was a reporter for nearly a half-century. He was a big fan of news and grasped the importance of both global and local affairs. An obituary in Tuesday’s Washington Post quotes columnist Jack Germond as saying Mr. Ringle was “one of the finest reporters I ever knew.” Read the full story

Tyler Hicks (NYTimes photo)

Tyler Hicks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer for the New York Times, will be at Davidson College Tuesday, April 19, to talk about the conflicts in Afghanistan and Libya. His illustrated talk begins at 7 p.m., in the Lilly Family Gallery of the Chambers Building. Read the full story