Journalist – Author

Your choice of a career in journalism was not surprising. The son of a newspaperman, you gained valuable experience as a summer intern at The Kansas City Star and as a Round Table reporter here. For a quarter-century, you were a general assignment and investigative reporter for The Star, focusing upon city and county politics, organized crime, race relations, penal reform, world hunger, juvenile justice, and extremist organizations and winning major awards for distinguished service from the American Bar Association, Overseas Press Club, National Association of Social Workers, and American Civil Liberties Union. Appropriately, you were among the first 40 journalists who formed Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc., in 1977 to continue the reporting efforts of your Round Table colleague, Don Bolles of the Class of 1950, in the wake of his murder in Arizona. Author of The Minutemen, a book about the paramilitary organization which was in the headlines in the ’60s, you resigned from the newspaper a year ago to devote full time to writing. Beloit College is proud to recognize your professional achievements by awarding you this Citation.