Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

1987. Publisher committed to city dies in tragic cycling accident

Publisher and Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Metcalf reigned over The Providence Journal during a period of aggressive investments that would expand and modernize the company -- and improve downtown Providence.

His unexplained death in 1987 is one of the strangest and most painful chapters in Journal history.

Metcalf, who was described as a reserved and private person, descended from a family that had been shaping The Providence Journal since the end of the 19th century. His grandfather, Stephen O. Metcalf, joined the Journal Company's board of directors in 1890, and was company president from 1904 to 1941.

Michael Metcalf's father, George P. Metcalf, became company president after Stephen O. retired.

Michael Metcalf was born in Providence in 1933. He worked as a reporter for the Charlotte Observer, and then sold ads for the Philadelphia Bulletin, before joining The Journal's advertising department in 1962. In 1963, he became the assistant to company president John C.A. Watkins, and continued to move up in the corporation. He succeeded Watkins as publisher in 1979 and as chairman of the board in 1985.

Former Journal editor Charles M. Hauser credits Metcalf with supporting him when The Journal in 1985 published a story in defiance of a federal judge.

"Without the backing of our magnificent publisher, Michael Metcalf, there is no way we could have stood up for our constitutional rights in the face of an angry federal judge," Hauser said in a 2004 e-mail.

Under Metcalf, the company invested in television, radio, cellular telephones, and downtown Providence. In Metcalf's obituary, the paper wrote:

"The Journal's investments in the Biltmore Hotel . . . and the Providence Performing Arts Center were not primarily calculated to make money. Rather, they were Mr. Metcalf's investment in preserving downtown Providence, a commitment that led the company to maintain its headquarters at 75 Fountain St. when others were deserting the city for the suburbs, and later to construct its new printing plant on the fringe of downtown."

Metcalf had overseen the development of The Journal's $60-million printing plant on Kinsley Avenue, which include presses that use flexography, a revolutionary process for newspapers.

The newspaper on Sept. 13, 1987, printed a special section describing the new printing process. That morning, the Sunday papers were not in the publisher's mailbox. Metcalf got on his 10-speed bicycle -- perhaps intending to buy a paper -- and pedaled away from his Westport, Mass., summer home.

What happened next is still a mystery.

Another cyclist discovered Metcalf lying in the road, unconscious and bleeding with a head injury. He was next to his undamaged bike, about 1 1/2 miles from home.

Surgery at St. Anne Hospital in Fall River could not save him, and Metcalf died a week later, at age 54, never having regained consciousness.

The police said Metcalf's death appeared to be an accident; they theorized that Metcalf had fallen off his bike and struck his head on the road -- maybe after an animal had darted in front of him, or maybe after he had run over a stone.

The Providence Journal Co. asked the Bristol County District Attorney's office to investigate.

Although the investigation concluded that Metcalf's death had been an accident, new Journal publisher Stephen Hamblett found it hard to accept that Metcalf had died accidentally. "Unfortunately, we will probably never know the complete story behind Mr. Metcalf's death," Hamblett said in February 1988. "It may have been an accident, albeit a very unusual one."