HULICK
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Barton Doane Hulick III, a reporter for The Providence Journal for 32 years who was known for his coverage of Providence City Hall and the state's court system, died Monday night at the Philip Hulitar Inpatient Hospice Center after a tenacious, five-year battle with Stage IV lung cancer.
He was 73 and the husband of Journal reporter Tracy Breton, with whom he lived in the Edgewood section of Cranston.
Born in Shelby, N.C., he was the eldest son of the late Barton Doane Hulick Jr. and Grace (Gaddy) Hulick. A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Hulick started his reporting career writing obituaries for the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times before moving on to the Berkshire Eagle in western Massachusetts. In 1970, he began his career as a reporter for The Providence Journal.
Outside of work, Hulick took joy in simple pleasures: sailing his 31-foot Seawind ketch, cataloging the wide array of birds - chickadees, snow birds, finches, and cardinals were his favorites - that came to feast at his bird feeders, raking leaves and hanging out with his Labrador retrievers.
He was shy with people he did not know well and confessed that interviewing strangers didn't come naturally. But he could be a bulldog as a reporter.
Bill Collins, who covered Providence City Hall with Hulick from 1975 to 1981, said of his close friend: "Although a native Southerner, Doane had a real feeling for the city's combative ethnic politics. He was also a relentless reporter who often disclosed unseemly words and deeds. Politicians did not look forward to receiving a call from Doane Hulick."
Later, Hulick went on to cover courts. Former Journal colleague Bob Chiappinelli said that in that arena, "Doane fashioned wonderful glimpses into the human condition from seemingly ordinary court cases. But as a cancer patient, he crafted his most inspiring story, displaying an indomitable will to live and regularly expressing concern to family, friends and caregivers about their everyday troubles before they could even inquire about his mortal ones."
Close friend and former Journal reporter Brian Jones said: "Doane's powerful intellect, which made him a superb, caring journalist, plunged him into a relentless pursuit of many subjects - from computers and their mysterious software languages, to physics and politics and to the families of birds that landed in his Cranston backyard. He marshaled this mastery of difficult subjects to take command of his tenacious battle against his cancer."
In addition to his wife, he is survived by two children, Johanna Petra Hulick and her partner, Sheldon Cooper, of Seattle, Wash.; a son, Jeremy Doane Hulick, of Washington, D.C.; a granddaughter, Ruby Luz Hulick-Cooper, of Seattle; a sister, Mary Hulick Riter, of Goldsboro, N.C.; a brother, Wilson Hulick, of Hickory, N.C.; and his beloved chocolate Labrador retriever, Beamer.
Calling hours for family and friends will be held Friday from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Jones Walton Sheridan Funeral Home, 1895 Broad St., Edgewood.