For the past 26 years, Dick Yarbrough has gained a large following with his syndicated newspaper column which reaches some 600,000 households and more than 1.3 million readers each week throughout Georgia, making him the most widely-syndicated local columnist in the state. The Georgia Press Association has named his column “Most Humorous” five times in ten years. Evidently he is only funny every other year. Politicians don’t think he is very funny at all.
He regularly skewers a number of targets, including self-important politicians of both parties, the lizard-loafered lobbyists that feed them, the national news media, people who criticize Georgia but move here anyway because we don’t have snow ten months a year and anybody that talks on a cell phone in the checkout lane. And he says he has just scratched the surface.
Yarbrough is known as a strong advocate for improving public education. He also continues to push for stronger ethics legislation in the state. In 2012, he received the Democracy Award from Common Cause Georgia. “Dick Yarbrough has been a staunch supporter and advocate of meaningful ethics reform for our state and has humorously and effectively kept the issue alive in the hearts and minds of Georgia citizens,” said William Perry, Executive Director of Common Cause Georgia.
Writing a column is just one of Yarbrough’s talents. The Georgia native is an author of two books, a sought-after speaker and an artist, with one of his paintings hanging in the State Capitol.