Robert E. Lee Taylor Jr. was not your typical jail bird.

It was 1963 when the iron doors slammed on Taylor, then president of the Philadelphia Bulletin, and his city editor, Earl Selby, because they refused to testify or let their reporters testify before a grand jury about the paper's sources for stories on corruption in Philadelphia city government.

Selby was a tough, hard-charging city editor who broke a number of stories about corruption in high places, and Taylor supported him.

Needless to say, neither man spent much time behind bars on contempt charges. They were quickly sprung by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which ruled that the state's "shield" law authorized them to withhold the identify of their sources.

It was an early test of what would be numerous cases through the years involving reporters and their sources.

Robert Taylor, who earned a reputation as a champion of a free press not only at the Bulletin but through various publishers' organizations and news outlets, and who was also a civic leader and Navy veteran of World War II, died Thursday. He was 96 and lived in Bryn Mawr.

"Bobby" Taylor went to work for the Bulletin, at one time the largest evening newspaper in the country, during the Depression. It was owned by his uncle, the legendary Robert L. McLean.

He started out in circulation, supervising newspaper delivery. World War II interrupted his career, and he served throughout the war as the captain of a submarine chaser.

In 1941, he married Leonore McAlpin Shiland, of New York City.

Returning to the Bulletin, Taylor joined the business department. He became business manager in 1955 and general manager a year later. He became president in 1959 and publisher in 1964.

Those were halycon years for the newspaper. Daily circulation stood at 750,000 and nearly a million on Sunday. It won Pulitzer Prizes in 1964 and 1965.

Under Taylor the Bulletin was a pioneer of "zoned" editions, with separate sections devoted to city and suburban news. It was an effort to chase after readers who had left the city for the peace and greenery of the suburbs.

Taylor also saw to it that the company diversified, buying into suburban weekly newspapers, cable televison systems and dailies in Nashua, N.H., and Santa Barbara, Calif.

But the paper was doomed by falling advertising and circulation, and increased competiton from the Inquirer, which had been sold by Walter Annenberg to Knight Newspapers.

Earl Selby was fired by managing editor William B. Dickinson because he felt that Selby's "crusades" were contrary to the Bulletin's understated philosophy.

The paper was sold by the McLean family in 1981 to the Charter Co. But it went out of business in 1982, after 135 years.

Taylor had given up his publisher's title in 1975, but stayed on as chairman.

As a civic leader, Taylor was an active supporter of the United Way and won its "Citizen Volunteer of the Year" award in 1978. He was president of the Gulph Mills Golf Club and a member of the Merion Cricket Club.

He served as director of the Associated Press from 1972 to 1981. He was a director of the Newspaper Advertising Bureau and the American Newspaper Publishers Association, and was president of ANPA's foundation from 1970 to 1971.

"He loved a party and hosted his share, often writing poems or songs for special occasions," said his son, Robert E. Taylor.

In retirement, Taylor wrote and self-published two books. "Travels With Lee Taylor" was an account of trips to various foreign countries, both professional and personal.

He and his wife were part of an Associated Press tour of China that was among the first from the West after President Richard M. Nixon opened relations with China in 1972.

They also traveled to India with newspaper friends and interviewed Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. With four other couples, they made forays to Africa, Australia, New Zealand and other exotic destinations.

He also was the author of "Robert McLean's Bulletin - and a look at our free press in 1987." It concerned his and the Bulletin's struggles to resist the demise of evening newspapers.

Despite failing eyesight, Taylor skiied into his 80s, and hosted family gatherings in Charleston's Yeaman's Hall Golf Club into his 90s.

His first wife, Leonore, died in 1986. Several years later, he married the former Jane Matthews Jackson, who died a few years after the marriage.

His twin brother, Stuart S. Taylor, former president and publisher of the Santa Barbara News-Press, died in 2004.

Besides his son, he is survived by two daughters, Wendy Foulke and Leelee Stege; six grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

Services: Were being arranged. *