WACO, Texas — Bob Good, the first general manager appointed to lead 25 News, died today in his Waco home from complications due to lung cancer. He was 79 years old.
"Bob was a kind man who treated his employees well," said Ray Peters, a former KXXV news and sports anchor for 16 years. "He was always even-keeled and easy to get along with."
Good started his broadcast news career in 1962 at KYTV in Springfield, Mo. Good was born and raised there and also obtained a journalism degree from Drury University.
Good made his way to Texas the following year, taking a role in the production department at WFAA in Dallas. Eventually transitioning from the news side of the business to the sales department.
His career took him to Central Texas nearly a decade later in 1974, when Good accepted a position as sales manager at KCEN near Waco. He would later become the assistant station manager at the NBC affliate.
Seven years later, Good took a position as general manager, leading KTPX in Odessa, Texas. Peters also worked in the KPTX sports department in 1984 and said Good had a new opportunity to build Waco's newest station later that year.
"When he built KXXV from scratch in late 1984, I followed him to the new station in Waco in early 1985," Peters said.
Station owner, Robert Mann, chose Good to help him build a new station in the Waco market that took years to make a reality. The new general manager helped the team push for the station launch with the first transmission of 25 News broadcast on March 22, 1985.
Good led the station for a nearly a decade. Peters remembers the first KXXV general manager as a humble leader who took care of his employees.
"Some people in that role can be known to rant and rave, but that wasn't Bob," Peters said. "In the decades since he left the station, he maintained that pleasant, cheerful demeanor. Bob was simply a nice guy."
He later went on to work in mortgage lending and joined his wife of nearly 60 years, Fran Good, in the real estate industry.
Fran told 25 News that Bob was first diagnosed last December. She said he was surrounded by family as he died peacefully at the couple's home this morning.
Good is also survived by his two sons and two grandsons.
Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Funeral Home will be handling arrangements for the funeral with services to be held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Waco later this week.
This article will be updated with a specific date and time as they become available.
