James Taylor Buckley, Jr.
J. Taylor Buckley Jr., one of the founding editors of USA TODAY, died Aug. 10, 2025, in Centreville, Md. after a bruising two-year brawl with a rare soft-tissue cancer. He was 85.
Buckley’s career in print journalism spanned more than 40 years, beginning at The Cavalier Daily, the student newspaper of the University of Virginia, and ending at USA TODAY just as it broke through as the daily with the largest circulation in the country and when ink-on-paper journalism in general reached its zenith as an information medium.
After graduating from UVA in 1961 with a BA in economics, he covered high school sports at The Daily Local News in West Chester, Pa. He left as its city editor in 1969 to run The Chester River Press, a struggling weekly in Chestertown, Md. The struggle ended six months later when the paper folded.
He found a copy-editing job at The Morning News in Wilmington, Del., where 12 years later he was named the first managing editor of both the News and the Evening Journal. In 1982 he was tapped by the Gannett Co., which owned the Wilmington papers, to be the start-up managing editor for the “Money” section of its soon-to-launch national daily, USA TODAY. He also played a key role in conceiving and laying down USA TODAY’s staccato writing style, which emphasized short, fact-packed sentences. He preached “verbs” and waged war on blather and unquantifiable modifiers, loudly admonishing reporters and editors to “beat empty adjectives to death like baby seals.”
Along the way, he wrote an op-ed column (titled “From The Hip,” presumably to exploit his sarcasm and unusual capacity to offend a significant percentage of readers), consulted for “USA TODAY on TV,” and for a time wrote a sports column and did broadcast sports commentary for USA TODAY Sky Radio.
In 1991, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he was dispatched to Moscow by USA TODAY to open its first foreign bureau, an assignment cut short when he was assaulted by a gang of thugs. He was beaten nearly to death after being thrown down a stairwell on the Borodino Bridge. At the time he was working on a piece about the Russian mafia’s role in divvying up state assets.
In what he would refer to as the “declining years of a mediocre career,” he got the dream job of senior writer for USA TODAY, mostly picking his own topics. These ranged from the perils of study abroad and campus crime to duct tape, vanity tags and the five-gallon bucket. He did a 1,500-word cover story on dirt.
He retired in 1999 and spent a year under contract working on a book with USA TODAY founder Al Neuharth. It bombed.
He was a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes, a frequent also-ran for a prize of his own, though once deemed a “legitimate contender” in the commentary category.
As a high school student in Pennsylvania, he was bow “man” in the Haverford School four-oared boat that won the national championship in 1957 and went on to become the second American schoolboy crew ever to compete in the Henley Royal Regatta in England. In 2021 he was elected to the school’s Sports Hall of Fame.
In his community, Buckley served on the vestry at Old St. Paul’s, Kent, on the board of the Sultana Education Foundation in Chestertown, Md. and on the board of the Mariner Pointe Condominium Association in Sanibel, Fla. Military service consisted of six years with the New Jersey National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve.
He was a frequent contributor to the “letters” department of The Kent County (Md.) News, leveling his caustic, tongue-in-cheek “pen” at everything from third-Bay-Bridge paranoia to the fine entertainments available while waiting in line at the Walgreen’s drive-in window.
Though he never regarded himself as much of a father, he made the obligatory attempts to teach his kids how to paddle, shoot, cast, start a fire and pluck fowl. He was ahead of his time as a fervent proponent and practitioner in the realm of renewable energy, constantly impressing upon his children this maxim: “There is no substitute for effective firewood management.” He also loved to drive boats and grow large tomatoes. He had a peculiar fondness for motorcycles, Vanna White and Zelko vodka. “Straight up, no fruit.” He was proudly anti-woke.
Buckley lived in Sanibel, but kept a summer home outside Chestertown. He was born in Philadelphia, the son of Kathryn Barry and J. Taylor Buckley.
He is survived by his widow, Graciela Muhana; three children (from his first marriage): Jamie, of Chestertown; John (Tara), of Malvern, Pa., and Kathryn Kaiser (Cris), of Alexandria, Va., and two Argentinean stepchildren: Lucas (Natasha) and Matias Crivilone. Also, two grandchildren, Stephanie and Edward J. Kaiser.
Graveside service will be private.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests perhaps a donation to Kent & Queen Anne’s Rescue Squad, Sultana Education Foundation, Compass Regional Hospice, or any good cause of your choosing.
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