Founder of Wisconsin group saw FOI as ‘a guarantee for the rights of people’

Robert H. (Bob) Wills, longtime editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel and founder of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, died July 22, 2021, in Madison, Wisconsin, at age 95, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 

“The role of the media is that of watchdog of government for the public. It follows that the guarantee of freedom of information for the media really is a guarantee for the rights of people,” said Wills in his capacity as president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council. Wills served as the council’s first president from 1979 to 1986.

His sons suggested memorial contributions to the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, which is a member of the National Freedom of Information Coalition.