Ara B. Napper

Ara B. Napper, 74, of Bowling Green, Fla., died Saturday, September 4, 1999 at a Florida hospital.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m., Thursday, September 9, 1999, at Haw Hill Assembly of God Church with the Rev. Shirlie Ellis and the Rev. Ray Stinson officiating. Burial will follow at Haw Hill Cemetery with Dillard Funeral Home in Brundidge directing.

He was born in Jack, Alabama, and moved to Bowling Green, Florida in the 1970s from Alabama. He was a retired Orange Grove Caretaker with C. Elton Crew, Inc.

Survivors include a daughter, Ruby (husband Charles) Cochran of Bowling Green, Fla.; a brother, Leon (wife, Urma) Napper of Brundidge and three grandchildren, Christopher, Aaron and Matthew.

Visitation will be held between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., Wednesday, September 8, 1999, at Dillard Funeral Home in Brundidge.

David McFarland

Former Tropolitan editor David McFarland died of an apparent heart attack on Sunday. He was 40 years old.

McFarland was an editor at the Pensacola News Journal when he died unexpectedly. Fellow editors and reporters were stunned upon hearing of the death of their colleague, who worked hard as one of the News Journal’s local news editors, a Sunday columnist and a writing coach.

Colleagues praised McFarland’s ability to direct and shape young reporters with his keen news judgment and his talent for editing news stories that put forward the information that mattered most to readers.

His conversational Sunday column often revolved around local news events; and he did not shrink from issuing sharp criticism of local newsmakers when he felt it necessary.

Hall School of Journalism Dean Emeritus Merrill Bankester remembered McFarland’s tenure as the Tropolitan’s editor as one filled with controversy. The Student Communications Board urged the paper to go off campus during McFarland’s term as editor. For a while, the Tropolitan ceased publication and was replaced by an off-campus student publication called "The Paper." McFarland was the publisher and editor of "The Paper."

The Student Communications Board appointed a new editor the following year and the Tropolitan returned as TSU’s official student newspaper.

McFarland left TSU and started his journalism career working for some of the south’s best-respected newspapers including the Alabama Journal, The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the Palm Beach Review and the Anniston Star.

Graveside services are planned for 11 a.m. Wednesday at Jefferson Memorial Gardens in Birmingham.