Dave McNeely, a reporter, author, educator, and columnist who covered Texas politics and government for six decades, died on August 30, 2025, in Austin, Texas. He was 85.
Born on June 12, 1940, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, he graduated from high school in College Station, Texas, in 1958 before earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism and government at The University of Texas at Austin.
McNeely began his long journalism career as a reporter for The Daily Texan, the university’s student newspaper, where he served as editor and wrote about state politics, policy, and government. He covered his first Texas legislative session in 1963 and over time, he attended more sessions than even the longest-serving representatives.
McNeely worked for the Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, The Dallas Morning News, and KERA-TV in Dallas. He joined the Austin American-Statesman in 1978 as a general assignment reporter and worked there for more than 25 years, serving as head of the paper’s Capitol bureau, and as a political reporter, editor, and columnist.
He held a Congressional Fellowship in Washington and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in the Class of 1976.
After retiring from the Statesman in 2004, he continued to write syndicated columns for numerous Texas newspapers for the next 15 years. McNeely also co-taught a course on “The Press and Politics” at UT-Austin, first with Paul Begala, a campaign adviser to Bill Clinton, and later with Karl Rove, who did similar work for George W. Bush’s gubernatorial and presidential campaigns.
Together with journalist, Jim Henderson, he co-wrote “Bob Bullock: God Bless Texas,” a biography of the late lieutenant governor of Texas. McNeely also served as a political consultant and worked on John Hill’s 1968 Democratic primary campaign for governor.
McNeely was a member of The Daily Texan Hall of Fame and served on the board of directors of Friends of The Daily Texan, Inc. for six years.
In 1998, McNeely helped start the Carole Kneeland Project for Responsible Journalism with his wife Carole, an award-winning TV news reporter and news director, and their friends shortly before she died from breast cancer. The nonprofit has trained more than 850 broadcast journalists from around the U.S. in news ethics, writing, decision-making, management, and leadership.
McNeely is survived by his wife, Kathryn, a United Methodist pastor; two daughters from his first marriage to Saundra Lee Inman, Michelle McNeely Mueller and Candace “Mariposa” McGriffy (Kris Allen), Kathryn’s three children, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his siblings Jack McNeely (Dee) and Mary Powell.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Carole Kneeland Project for Responsible Journalism, the Open Door Ministry at University United Methodist Church in Austin, and an annual scholarship fund established in McNeely’s name by Friends of the Daily Texan.
Learn more:
- McNeely recounts 40+ years of covering the Texas legislature (Nieman Watchdog)
- Articles by Dave McNeely for Nieman Watchdog
- Journalists Portray a Complex, Self-Destructive Texas Politician (Nieman Reports)
Two reporters encounter roadblocks in telling the flamboyant story of Bob Bullock.
By Dave McNeely and Jim Henderson - In Memoriam: Dave McNeely, respected Texas journalist (Friends of the Daily Texan)
- Dave McNeely, longtime Texas journalist and educator, dies at 85 (Austin American-Statesman)
- Former Texas State Capitol reporter and columnist Dave McNeely dies at 85 (KVUE)
