Walter Robert Mears (January 11, 1935 – March 3, 2022) was an American journalist, author, and educator. Mears worked for the Associated Press from 1956 until his retirement in 2001. In 1977, he won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his coverage of the 1976 United States presidential election. In 2016, Mears joined the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, at Duke University, as a volunteer instructor, teaching classes on election campaigns; he had previously taught undergraduate classes in journalism.