Robert M. "Bob" McVey Jr.

Robert Max McVey, a resident of Austin, Texas, is currently chief of Staff for State Representative Ryan Guillen in the Texas Legislature.

Born on August 5, 1948 in Brenham, Texas as the second child of Robert M. and Pearl Elois Stephens McVey, Robert Max was primarily raised on the Texas Mexico border in the City of Laredo and on the family farm with his maternal grandmother and uncles in the Big Thicket area of east Texas in Barber's Hill and Liberty County.

He attended public schools in Laredo and a private military school, Peacock Military Academy, in San Antonio, Tx.

He married Lori Brown in 1972 in Austin, Texas. McVey has one son from the marriage, Robert Richard McVey, born July 15, 1974, in Perryton, Tx. The couple divorced in 1988.

On December 29, 1990, McVey married Kate Nuber McVey, publisher of the "Lake Travis View" newspaper, in San Antonio Texas.

Career

After studying science and journalism at the University of Texas, McVey embarked on a journalism career in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahome as a writer/editor/photographer. He also worked as a "stringer" for the Associated Press and did freelance film news for television stations.

In 1977 he purchased the defunct "Luling Signal" newspaper from former publisher and owner Hal Bridges and ran it for a year. In 1978 he combined the Signal with the Luling Newsboy to form the Luling Newsboy and Signal which he sold in 1979.

From 1972 to 1985 he also worked as a writer, editor and photographer at various newspapers including the "Lockhart Post Register, the Perryton Herald, the Arkansas Fort Smith Times-Herald, the Daily Oklahoman, the Copperas Cove Press" and the "Laredo Morning Times".

In March 1985 he purchased the "Zapata County News" from the Plattner Family and published the newspaper for 17 years.

Bob and Kate McVey operated the Zapata County News together during ten contentious years professionally that included efforts to close down the Zapata News by local politicians through the use boycotts, lawsuits, and the creation of a competing publication by Zapata County Judge Angel Flores. These events were chronicled in the "Texas Monthly" article "Weekly, Strongly" in December of 1997.

In 2001 when they sold their holdings in south Texas and moved to Austin, Tx. During this period had also started two other newspapers, including the Hebbronville View in Jim Hogg County and the Roma Star in Starr County. Both were sold to the editors running them.