James V. Wyman

James V. Wyman, 90, of South Kingstown, died peacefully on May 9, 2014 at home. He was a retired vice president and executive editor of the Providence Journal, who directed coverage of corruption in the Rhode Island court system that won the newspaper a Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism in 1994, among his many accomplishments during a 44-year career with the newspaper. Wyman was born in Brockton, Mass., the son of Christine L. (Skinner) and George D. Wyman Sr. He graduated from Taunton High School and served with the Army Signal Corps in the Philippines and New Guinea during World War II. He worked at the Taunton Daily Gazette while attending college and joined the Journal as a bureau reporter within days of graduating from Boston University in 1951. He was named city editor of the Journal’s former sister paper, the Evening Bulletin, in 1963, rising through the ranks until being named to the Journal’s top editorial post in 1989. He was a past president of both the New England Associated Press News Executives Association and the New England chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, which awarded him the Yankee Quill prize for lifetime contribution to excellence in Journalism in 1989. Wyman also received a distinguished alumni award from Boston University’s College of Communication in 1996 and was inducted into the Rhode Island Journalism Hall of Fame in 1999. He was the author of the 2008 memoir “Bittersweet Beginnings: A Sketchbook of a Great Depression Boyhood;” a Civil War and Native American history buff and a ham radio operator (call sign N1WWE). Wyman enjoyed traveling through the mountains of Vermont and along the coastline of Cape Cod and the Islands. Wyman is survived by his wife of 63 years, Viola M. (Bousquet) Wyman of South Kingstown; three children: J. Vernon Wyman of South Kingstown, Douglas P. Wyman of Los Angeles, Calif., and Carolyn Wyman of Philadelphia, Pa.; two grandchildren: Elizabeth Wyman and James M. Wyman, both of South Kingstown; a sister, Barbara Tillson of Raynham, Mass.; and eight nieces and nephews. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Friday, May 16, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. in St. Mary Star of the Sea Church, 864 Pt. Judith Rd., Narragansett. Burial with military honors will be in the Rhode Island Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Exeter. Visiting hours Thursday, May 15, 2014 from 4 to 7 p.m. in the AVERY-STORTI Funeral Home, 88 Columbia St., Wakefield. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to The James V. Wyman Memorial Scholarship in Journalism c/o U.R.I. Foundation, 79 Upper College Rd., Kingston, RI 02881.