A longtime reporter for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Robert Digitale was part of the newsroom staff that won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news. The topic of their coverage: The North Bay wildfires of October 2017. Robert's front page story on the devastation of Santa Rosa's Coffey Park neighborhood was part of the packet of articles and video reviewed by the Pulitzer judges.
Robert retired in 2018 after nearly four decades at the newspaper.
During those years, he went to Texas to write about public schools and high-stakes testing. He was trounced at tennis by the late "Peanuts" creator Charles M. Schulz, and he had President Barack Obama (then a U.S. senator) put a hand on Robert's back in order to prevent a collision. (He still has the historic sports coat.) Robert at various times covered City Hall, education, commercial salmon fishing, real estate and Sonoma County agriculture.