Background
Kiker, Douglas was born on January 7, 1930 in Griffin, Georgia, United States. Son of Ralph Douglas and Nora Ellen (Bunn) Kiker.
Kiker, Douglas was born on January 7, 1930 in Griffin, Georgia, United States. Son of Ralph Douglas and Nora Ellen (Bunn) Kiker.
Bachelor of Arts in English, Presbyterian College, 1952; Doctor of Philosophy in Humanities, Presbyterian College, 1974.
He first gained national attention for his book "The Southerner," published in 1957 and followed by "Strangers on the Shore". Later, he became director of information for the Peace Corps, serving from 1961 until 1963. He left the government and became a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune newspaper and in his first week on the job rode in the press bus in the motorcade of President John F. Kennedy when Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
By 1966, National Broadcasting Company News had taken notice of his varied background and hired him as a correspondent.
He would remain with that network for the rest of his life. Kiker became distinguished for his numerous assignments over the years for National Broadcasting Company. Perhaps his best-known work was covering military conflicts in Southeast Asia (namely Vietnam) and the Mideast (particularly the Iranian Revolution).
During much of that time, he served as National Broadcasting Company"s Rome bureau chief, with a territory encompassing most of Europe and western Asia. But Kiker also excelled at domestic stories, as well, including the Civil Rights movement and United States. politics.
He was also the commentator on the August 9, 1974 live broadcast of President Richard Nixon"s departure from office in disgrace from the Watergate scandal.
Kiker filed reports for David Brinkley"s documentaries and short-lived newsmagazines during the 1970s, in addition to his regular work on National Broadcasting Company Nightly News, where he occasionally anchored on the weekends. Kiker worked as a floor reporter during National Broadcasting Company"s coverage of the 1972 political conventions and was Washington editor for Today in the midto late 1970s. In the early 1980s, Kiker did a report critical of radio personality Howard Stern, just as Stern was leaving a Washington District of Columbia station to join W National Broadcasting Company-Department of Administration and Management in New New York
The report likely foretold the problems Stern would later have at W National Broadcasting Company. Despite the success of his 1950s novels, Kiker did not return to book length fiction until later in his life, when he wrote three mystery novels, "Murder on Clam Pond" (published in 1986), "Death at the Cut" (1988), and "Death Below Deck" (1991).
The mysteries were set on Cape Cod and featured reporter Mac McFarland. They received considerable critical acclaim.
According to obituaries in The New York Times and other major newspapers, Douglas Kiker died in his sleep, apparently from a heart attack, while vacationing at his beloved Cape Cod summer home in Chatham, Massachusetts. He was 61.
(Mac finds a drowned girl in a sunken Volkswagen and disco...)
(Strangers On The Shore: A Novel, by Kiker, Douglas)
(Great condition with dust jacket.)
(New York: Random House, 1988. 1st Edition, Hardbound, abo...)
(states 'FIRST EDITION. Random House. 1988)
Lieutenant United States Naval Reserve, 1954-1959. Member American Federation television and Radio Artists, Writers Guild.
Married Ruth Rusling, December 14, 1954 (divorced 1972). Children: Ann, James. Married Diana Simpson, May 1974.
Children: Craig, Douglas, Patrick.