UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A Penn State alumnus who made his mark in Washington, D.C., building a career that spanned more than five decades and setting a standard for generations of successors to emulate, died in his home on July 4, 2025.
Stanley Degler was 95 years old and a lifelong curator of current events and history.
Degler, who earned his journalism degree in 1951, enjoyed a whirlwind year after graduation from the University that included getting married (July) and getting drafted into the Marines (December). The following year he moved to Washington, D.C. and started a one-man news bureau serving newspapers in three Pennsylvania towns (Allentown, York and Sunbury). Unbowed by the presence of journalists and news organizations from all over the world, Degler found his niche. Editors appreciated the quality of his work and readers in Pennsylvania got their news coverage from someone focused exclusively on their interests. He earned his master’s degree from George Washington University in 1957.
Degler later worked for the magazine of the National Automobile Dealers Association and then moved into the position that would define his career. He spent 33 years with the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA), a privately owned publisher. Functioning as part of a news bureau for select audiences, Degler covered the Department of Defense, the environment, transportation agencies, the space program and a variety of other issues.
He eventually rose to executive editor, in charge of all BNA publications in the 1980s and, later, to senior vice president of the Bureau of National Affairs. When the organization was purchased and became BloombergBNA, Degler served as member of the organization’s board for 11 years.
Additionally, the move to BloombergBNA helped prove his business acumen.
He had collected stock in the employee-owned private corporation for years. “I bought a lot of it, and held onto it even into my retirement,” he said. “That’s what enabled me to make a gift.”
In 2016, Degler made a $1 million gift to support a semester-in-residence program in Washington, D.C., conducted by the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. The program was renamed the Stanley E. Degler Washington Program and involved classroom instruction and an internship for students each fall. The program served more than 1,200 students during its quarter century of existence before being reshaped into different programs after the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
For Degler, who lived in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife, Ann, the support just made sense — a logical combination of his appreciation for his alma mater and an acknowledgement of his career.
“I’m grateful for the background I got at Penn State. With that, and a little bit of experience, I was able to be very successful,” Degler said at the time of his gift. “I appreciate it and I’m hoping my gift will induce other alumni who have benefited from their education to make contributions to scholarships, to the Washington Program or to any of the other wonderful opportunities in the College of Communications.”
In many ways, Degler’s career path provides valuable examples for current students. That includes an entrepreneurial spirit, a dedication to hard work and a willingness to embrace challenges. While those who benefit from his support of the Washington Program might do so in different manners and with different communications tools than Degler did more than 70 years ago, the need for a burning passion, an opportunity and a grounding in a Penn State education remain valuable.
Degler was an active volunteer with Arlington Public Schools and the Washington Conservancy of Music. He and his late wife Sandra previously established the Stanley E. Degler Scholarship in Journalism in the Bellisario College.