| Revision as of 16:26, 3 August 2005 editRwlesses (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users19,935 editsNo edit summary← Previous edit | Revision as of 16:27, 3 August 2005 edit undoRwlesses (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users19,935 editsNo edit summaryNext edit → | ||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| Richard Lawson Wilson was born September 3, 1905, in ], and was raised in ]. He was son of Frank Wilson (1860-1921) and Emily McCord Wilson (1862-1931), and was the youngest of seven children. | Richard Lawson Wilson was born September 3, 1905, in ], and was raised in ]. He was son of Frank Wilson (1860-1921) and Emily McCord Wilson (1862-1931), and was the youngest of seven children. | ||
| He attended the University of Iowa, at Iowa City, |
He attended the ], at ]. There he met and later married Katherine Young Macy (1906-1989), a graduate of the University of Iowa and the Columbia University school of journalism. | ||
| In 1926, he began his reporting career at the ] in ]. After a year at the ] in 1928, he returned to Des Moines as City Editor and then to Washington, D.C., in 1933 to set up the Washington bureau of the Register, at that time owned by the Cowles family, who owned newspapers in the midwest and published the now-defunct ] magazine. Mr. Wilson was elected President of the ] for the year 1940. He later joined the ]. | In 1926, he began his reporting career at the ] in ]. After a year at the ] in 1928, he returned to Des Moines as City Editor and then to Washington, D.C., in 1933 to set up the Washington bureau of the Register, at that time owned by the Cowles family, who owned newspapers in the midwest and published the now-defunct ] magazine. Mr. Wilson was elected President of the ] for the year 1940. He later joined the ]. | ||
Revision as of 16:27, 3 August 2005
Richard Lawson Wilson was born September 3, 1905, in Galesburg, Illinois, and was raised in Newton, Iowa. He was son of Frank Wilson (1860-1921) and Emily McCord Wilson (1862-1931), and was the youngest of seven children.
He attended the University of Iowa, at Iowa City, Iowa. There he met and later married Katherine Young Macy (1906-1989), a graduate of the University of Iowa and the Columbia University school of journalism.
In 1926, he began his reporting career at the Des Moines Register in Des Moines, Iowa. After a year at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1928, he returned to Des Moines as City Editor and then to Washington, D.C., in 1933 to set up the Washington bureau of the Register, at that time owned by the Cowles family, who owned newspapers in the midwest and published the now-defunct Look magazine. Mr. Wilson was elected President of the National Press Club for the year 1940. He later joined the Washington Star.
During World War II, Mr. Wilson travelled extensively abroad as a war correspondent. In 1954, Mr. Wilson was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, "or his exclusive publication of the FBI Report to the White House in the Harry Dexter White case before it was laid before the Senate by J. Edgar Hoover."
Mr. Wilson retired from active newspaper reporting about 1970, and wrote a nationally-syndicated column until 1976. He died on January 19, 1981, in Washington, DC, of complications from Mycosis Fungoides, a skin lymphona. He is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington.
His wife, Katherine Wilson, was a reporter in her own right but rarely published, being more interested in supporting her husband's career and raising her two daughters. Susan Madge Wilson (1930-2003) attended Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts and married journalist Arthur Hallock (Hal) Seymour (living), son of Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Forrest W. Seymour. They had three children. Mr. Wilson's younger daughter, Katherine Macy Wilson (1933-1981) attended Radcliffe college as well, and married attorney Maurice F. Lesses (living), and had three children. Katherine M. Wilson died of pneumonia in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1989. She had been suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. She is buried next to her husband in Rock Creek Cemetery.
Mr. Wilson's professional papers are at Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa. He is among many people whose conversation was captured on President Nixon's "secret tapes."