Robert (Bob) William Ankeny

Dearborn – Robert (Bob) William Ankeny, age 86, of Dearborn, passed away on March 7, 2022 at Angela Hospice in Livonia, MI, following medical complications after an accident.

Bob was born in Detroit in 1935 to William and Louise Ankeny. Family difficulties led to him being placed in the Evangelical Home for Orphans and Old People at age 12. But by 15½ he was living in his own apartment, and graduated from Cooley High School and matriculated at the University of Michigan in 1953, studying engineering for a year before dropping out to go to New York City where he worked as a thread factory sales manager by day, and honed his beat poet skills by night.

Bob found his calling when he served in the Army Information Service from 1959-60 and served as a reporter for the Army's Fort Bliss (Texas) News. After discharge, he took a job as a police beat reporter with the Tri-City Progress in Warren, which was absorbed into the Macomb Daily where he worked until he was hired by The Detroit News in 1969. He covered various beats at the News from 1969-95, ultimately becoming an authority on federal courts, and reporting on many of the biggest Michigan-based stories of the late 20th century. After going on strike with his Newspaper Guild and other unions, Bob took a job as a reporter with Crain's Detroit Business, where he finished out his career, retiring in 2009 at age 74. In he was awarded the Detroit Bar Association's Liberty Bell Award for public service by a non-lawyer, and he will be inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame in April.

Bob's first wife, Ann, died of cancer. He married teacher Gloria De Grazia Ankeny in 1965, and they raised their two daughters first in an integrated neighborhood at Detroit's Seven Mile and Livernois, then after the 1967 riots in a diverse area of east Dearborn, where he lived for over 50 years. He enjoyed hosting his wife's large Italian family and their wide circle of friends, and the couple shared a passion for progressive causes. Gloria died of cancer in 2001. He travelled extensively in his later years including to Australia, and continued to maintain a large and close-knit circle of friends and family.

Bob is survived by his daughters Rachel (Glenn Hawke) of Adelaide, South Australia, and Leah (Noah Gotz) of Seattle, Washington. He also is survived by grandsons Luca Ankeny, Anthony Hawke, and Akiva Gotz, as well as granddaughter Geneva Gotz, and sisters Linda Joyce of Albuquerque, NM and Sandra Koester of Naples, FL and Grosse Pointe Woods. He was preceded in death by brothers Arthur and Roy; sister Kay Freisen; father William Ankeny; stepmother Emma Ankeny; and mother Louise Ankeny.

A memorial service will be held in Detroit at a later date. Because of his lifelong commitment to social justice and those in need in his hometown, his family suggests donations in his memory to Say Detroit ( saydetroit.org ) or to the Detroit Journalism Engagement Fund (https:// cfsem.org/initiative/journalism ).

Link to full obit: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2022/03/07/former-detroit-news-reporter-robert-ankeny-covered-hoffa-disappearance-delorean-trial-has-died-86/9409579002/