IN MEMORIAM: United Media Guild’s investigative crime reporter Bill Bryan

Bill Bryan, a member of St. Louis Media Guild Local 36047 (now the United Media Guild), who spent more than three decades covering crime for two St. Louis newspapers, died of lung cancer March 19, 2024 at his home in Kirkwood. He was 76.

Bill worked for the old Globe-Democrat and the Post-Dispatch and was incredibly well-sourced. He broke numerous stories during the mob feuds and car bombings that rocked the city in the 1970s and early 1980s. Some of his favorite stories included uncovering a police chief’s secret retirement package and piecing together a string of prostitute deaths that proved a serial killer was at work in the Metro area.

When he retired in 2007, Bill was considered one of the longest-serving police reporters at a major U.S. daily newspaper.

Above all else, Bill immersed himself in family. He cherished Bryan family gatherings, from Louisville to St. Louis, and gladly passed down the silly sayings of his Uncle Fred. Bill would do anything for his four kids, including traveling to their numerous sporting events as a proud and loyal booster, and he adored each of his grandchildren.

Bill is survived by his wife, Kim Bell, of Kirkwood; his four children, Michael (Heidi) Bryan, of Marietta, Ga.; Katie Bryan, of Warson Woods; Maureen (Kevin) Bierbach of Littleton, Colo.; and Annie Bryan of Boston, Mass.; and six grandchildren, Colin, Molly and Sean Bryan; and Brody, Wesley and Charlie Bierbach.

Bill is also remembered by his brother, Chuck (Saundra) Bryan, of Greenville, S.C.; his two sisters, Doris (Dan) Devereux, of Town and Country, and Deborah Adams of Charleston, S.C.; sister-in-law Mandy Bryan, of Palmyra, Va.; his former wife, Martha; as well as numerous cousins, nieces and nephews.

Bill was preceded in death by his parents, William Hamilton Bryan and Anne Elizabeth (MacDougall) Bryan; and younger brother James Lamar Bryan.