DATE: Sunday, June 15, 1997                 TAG: 9706150048

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 

DATELINE: NAGS HEAD                         LENGTH:   56 lines

FACES WILL CHANGE IN LOCAL PILOT LEADERSHIP

Pat Richardson has been named general manager and Rob Morris has been appointed editor of The Virginian-Pilot's North Carolina publications.

Their appointments are effective Aug. 1 when Ronald L. Speer retires after 20 years with the newspaper, the last three as North Carolina general manager and editor.

``Pat and Rob are both talented, experienced people who care about our readers, our advertisers and our communities,'' said Speer, 63, who plans to stay in Manteo. ``I am delighted they are taking over.''

Speer plans to continue writing a weekly column in The Carolina Coast, published by The Virginian-Pilot.

Richardson, 33, is retail advertising manager for The Pilot in Chesapeake and Portsmouth. Morris, 45, is Virginia-metro editor in the paper's headquarters in Norfolk.

Richardson, a graduate of the University of Maine, will be in charge of marketing, advertising and production for northeast North Carolina and will oversee the news-gathering operations. The Pilot has news, advertising and circulation offices in Nags Head and Elizabeth City.

Richardson has been in The Pilot's advertising department for eight years, and was the North Carolina advertising manager from 1991 through 1993. During that period she received the 1993 Young Careerist award from the Outer Banks chapter of the North Carolina Federation of Business and Professional Women.

She served on the Friends of Elizabeth II Board of Directors, and was chairwoman of the Outer Banks Home Builders Public Relations and the Parade of Homes committees. She was an associate member of the Dare County Board of Realtors and a volunteer for the American Heart Association and served on the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce membership campaign committee. She serves on the board of directors for the Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce.

Before joining The Pilot, Richardson was Sales Person of the Year for the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 1988. Richardson is single. She plans to live in the Outer Banks. Morris will be in charge of newsgathering for the daily North Carolina section and the weekly Carolina Coast edited by Lane DeGregory.

Morris has been with The Pilot for 16 years as a reporter and editor. He has worked as Virginia editor and metro editor in Norfolk for the past three years. Before that, he was leader of the paper's features writing team. From 1984 to 1992, he held several editing posts in Virginia Beach, starting as an assistant city editor in charge of The Beacon community news section and later becoming the editor overseeing the city's entire news operation.

He began his career as a news clerk in the Washington Bureau of The New York Times, and worked for The Daily Press in Newport News, and The Gazette at Charleston, W.Va., before joining The Pilot.

Morris plans to move to the Outer Banks with his wife, Pat, a physical therapist, and their children, John, 12, and Libbie, 9. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]

PAT RICHARDSON

ROB MORRIS

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