Promoting the interests of newspapers and other publications and advancing journalism standards and educational opportunities in Rhode Island since 1886.
The Rhode Island Journalism Hall of Fame
The Rhode Island Journalism Hall of Fame was established in 1985 by the Rhode Island Press Association to honor journalists who have been influential in their profession. The first members were inducted in the fall of 1986.
The members of the Hall of Fame are chosen by a committee of the press association and approved by the board. Copies of the plaques awarded to inductees are displayed in the lobby of the Chafee building on the University of Rhode Island campus in Kingston.
Class of 1999
Winfield Townley Scott (1910-1968)
Under the editorship of Winfield T. Scott, the book pages of the Providence Journal were cited by the London Times Literary Supplement as being among the best in the nation.
From his beginnings as a columnist for the Brown Daily Herald, Scott in 1931 landed a job on the Providence Journal right out of college. He remained at the paper for 20 years, the last 10 as editor of the books system.
A renowned poet, reviewer and essayist, he began a poetry column in the Journal during the 1940s which published many of the best poets in America and was probably unique in American newspapers at the time.
An essay Scott wrote for the Sunday Journal in March of 1943 called for renaissance in Providence and challenged the city to respond. The piece spoke out for many of the cultural and architectural changes and new artistic initiatives that have since come to pass. The resulting furor inspired by the piece sparked a spirited public debate, numerous art shows, readings and theater performances and discussions. It helped set in motions the forces which led to cleaning up the rivers, establishing a resident
theater company, and making Rhode Island a welcoming place for the arts.
The author of a dozen books of poetry and prose, and often anthologized, Win Scott was widely recognized with many honors and awards from his peers as a poet, journalist, and commentator on culture and the arts. He was also known for his generous spirit, encouraging young authors and poets whenever asked.
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame November 1999.
Ambrose "Amby" Smith (1917-2005)
A legend among athletes and readers of the Kent County Daily Times, Ambrose "Amby" Smith covered sports in the Pawtuxet Valley for nearly sixty years.
"If anything happened in the valley, it mattered to Amby," said a former colleague.
There hasn't been an athlete from the community in that time that Smith didn't know and write about. From the greats who made it to the big leagues, to the high school stalwarts, to the back-up players who broke into a line-up or game, he met and covered the sports figures of West Warwick with compassion and commitment.
One publisher he worked for said, "Amby Smith is as plugged into his community as the roots of a great oak tree. He has a big heart and he wears it on his sleeve."
Besides his six-decade career as sports writer, columnist, and editor, Smith was deeply involved in volunteer work with many organizations including the Christian Brothers and Kent County Memorial Hospital, of which he was an incorporator.
A life-long resident of West Warwick he can rightly be said to be beloved by the town. Both a baseball and softball field there have been named in his honor as well as the press box at the high school field, a race horse, and a sports league. He has been inducted into six other halls of fame. He also was named Rhode Island Sportswriter of the Year three times over his long career.
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame November 1999.
James V. Wyman (1923-2014)
In his 44 years (1951-1995) at the Providence Journal, James Wyman rose from bureau reporter to executive editor. When he retired, the paper had recently won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, for its exposure of corruption in Rhode Island's court system. For much of his tenure at the Journal, he worked out of the limelight, providing vital guidance and inspiration to the news staff.
A graduate of Taunton High School and an overseas veteran of World War II, he joined the Journal as a reporter after graduating from Boston University in 1951. He was named assistant city editor of the Journal's former sister paper, the Evening Bulletin, in 1958. In succession, he became city editor, executive city editor, metropolitan managing editor, deputy executive editor and finally executive editor, the newsroom's top job, in 1989. He waspresident of the New England Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, from whom he received the Yankee Quill Award. He was also president of the New England Associated Press News Executives Association.
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame November 1999.
Rosalie M. Frost (1913-1979)
Rosalie Frost was perhaps the only newspaper publisher who began her working life as a Radio City Music Hall Rockette. She made news headlines herself when she unexpectedly inherited $100,000 from an elderly woman she had befriended backstage. Then she moved to Cranston, R.I., with her husband, who eventually became publisher of the Cranston Herald. She succeeded him when he left for military service and remained in the position after their divorce.
Active in community affairs, she was former board member of the Cranston Cancer Society and taught ballet. She received the Cranston Brotherhood Award in 1965. After she retired in 1975, she was honored by the Rhode Island House of Representatives.
She was the first woman president of the Rhode Island Press Club and was the first president of the Cranston Women's Professional Club.
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame November 1999.
Class of 1998
Morris Earl "Flash" Dumin (1918-1992)
Aptly described at his retirement as a "Pawtucket legend," Morris Earl "Flash" Dumin spent 40 years chronicling the life of Pawtucket and the Blackstone Valley with his camera. In those four decades, as a photographer for the Pawtucket Times, he probably took a picture of just about every newsmaker in the Blackstone Valley. He was known not only for the excellence of his work, but for his ability to make friends for the newspaper with his warm and friendly approach.
Young reporters at the Times, whether or not they knew it, got much of their training from Dumin while making the journalistic rounds with him. He often spotted news where no one else saw it, and he inevitably was able to persuade reporters that they should pursue the angle he saw.
Born in Pawtucket, he began hanging around with Times photographers in his high school days, helping them carry their equipment and learning the craft of taking news photos. After servicing as an Air Force photographer in World War II, he was hired by the Times as a staff photographer in 1946. In the ensuing 40 years, he photographed presidents and plain citizens,
entertainers and policemen, priests and politicians. His duties took him everywhere; there probably wasn't a street in the Blackstone Valley that he hadn't been on, and not a person in the region who didn't know him. To everyone, in fact, Flash Dumin was the Pawtucket Times.
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame November 1998.
George E. Rooney (1926-1997)
A colleague described George Rooney as "a classic old-time news photographer who knew the cops and knew the firemen and knew where to get a sandwich at 2 o'clock in the morning." He was, this colleague said, "known for his high-velocity approach that amazed young reporters and photographers as they started their careers in Providence."
The career described in those superlatives began with a picture of the Point Street bridge in Providence, which the Providence Journal-Bulletin ran after he submitted it as a freelancer. Subsequently hired as a photographer in 1950, he worked for the newspaper until his retirement in 1991, by which time he was the paper's chief photographer. During his time at the Journal-Bulletin, Rooney won many awards and earned a reputation as a fearless photographer who was not afraid to risk life and limb to get a picture. He was adept as well at picturing the lighter side of life. As another colleague said, he "seemed to know intuitively how to illustrate all of the holidays and memorable occasions in our reader's lives."
Born in Providence, he served in the Navy in World War II. He was a member of the Rhode Island News Photographers
Association an the National Press Association. His twin brother, William "Bill" Rooney, was also a Journal-Bulletin photographer.
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame November 1998.
William Rooney (1926-2017)
In his heyday as a Providence Journal-Bulletin photographer, it was almost impossible to find a prominent Rhode Island politician or businessman, a police officer of any rank or a firefighter who didn't know Bill Rooney. The hallmark of Rooney's 40-year career with the newspaper was being "close to the action"—as close, for instance, as being with the commander of the state police and getting the pictures when a prominent gangland figure was arrested, or standing—alone—just yards away from a man who had just killed his parents with a hatchet.
Not that he did nothing but take crime or disaster photos. Bill Rooney was much in demand by Journal editors for feature photos, society news photos and sports pictures. In short, no matter what the assignment, he was considered an ace.
While in high school in Providence, Rooney worked nights in the Associated Press wire room, which at that time as housed in the Journal building. After serving in the Army Signal Corps in World War II, he returned to his AP job and also opened a photo studio in downtown Providence. In 1949, he was hired by the Journal, and he worked at the paper for 40 years, retiring in 1989,
having taken pictures of, among other people, Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Nixon.
He helped establish the Rhode Island News Photographers Association and was its president for two terms, and then chairman of its board. He was also a vice president of the Providence Newspaper Guild. His twin brother, George E Rooney, was also a Journal photographer.
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame November 1998.
Class of 1997
Joseph M. Ungaro (1930-2006)
Providence-born Joe Ungaro had four careers in journalism. His first was at the Providence Journal-Bulletin, where he spent 22 years, starting in 1952, and rose from copyboy to managing editor of the Evening Bulletin and assistant vice president of the Journal Company for planning and development.
In 1974, he began his second career, joining the Gannett chain's Westchester Rockland Newspapers as managing editor. In 1990, when he was president and publisher of Westchester's Rockland's 10 daily papers and vice president of the Gannett Metro Newspaper Division, Gannett sent him to Detroit as president and chief executive officer of the Detroit Newspaper Agency, the joint operating agreement under which Detroit's two dailies are published.
Career No. 3 began on Jan. 1, 1992, when he retired from Gannett and became a newspaper consultant, a career that has him traveling the globe. He is advising the Pentagon on a pro-bono basis on major changes at Stars and Stripes, the armed forces daily, and has worked to help start a Polish language paper in Warsaw and to help Uruguay's leading newspaper modernize.
Career No. 4 overarches Ungaro's other three careers: He was one of the nation's pre-eminent authorities on the use of computers at newspapers. At Westchester Rockland Newspapers, he presided over the installation of the country's first newspaper pagination system.
Joseph M. Ungaro was born in Providence in 1930. He was a graduate of Providence College and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. He and his wife, the former Evelyn Short, lived in Charlestown, R.I.
He was a former president of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association, and was active in the American Newspaper Publishers Association and the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He was a Pulitzer Prize juror, has taught at Columbia and was a frequent lecturer at the American Press Institute. He was active in civic affairs.
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame October 1997.
Roswell Bosworth Jr. (1926-2017)
Roswell Bosworth Jr. ended a 50-year career in community journalism when he retired as publisher of East Bay Newspapers in April, 1997 at the age of 70. During those five decades, Bosworth took a small, family-owned business that published one four-page newspaper twice a week and expanded it into a business that produced six publications, reaching 40,000 homes in nine towns.
Bosworth was involved in every aspect of the family business. Beginning as a 12-year-old peddling the Bristol Phoenix, he continued to work for the family business throughout high school and during summers while home from college. After earning a degree in political science from the University of Rhode Island, where he was editor of the campus newspaper, Mr. Bosworth returned to the Bristol Phoenix. He learned the business by doing everything from writing and typesetting to printing and delivering papers.
Bosworth then created East Bay Newspapers. He founded the Barrington Times, serving as its first editor in 1958;
founded the Warren Times, now the Warren Times-Gazette, and served as its first editor in 1961; founded the Sakonnet Times in 1967; created the East Bay Window in 1971; a page for Portuguese readers, called Comunidade Lusiada, in 1972; and organized the East Bay Classifieds in 1985. He served as publisher for East Bay Newspapers for nearly 25 years.
He was a founding member and president of the New England Press Association and the Suburban Newspapers of America.
Throughout it all, Bosworth was known for his strong editorial voice, and for his role as a watchdog and friend to the people of the East Bay area. He was proud that East Bay Newspapers remained a small, family-owned entity.
Upon his retirement, he said, "I can honestly look back and say 'mission accomplished.'"
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame October 1997.
Joseph C. Harsch (1905-1998)
Joseph C. Harsch began his career as a cub reporter for the Christian Science Monitor in 1929 and spent the next six decades as a first-hand witness to major events of the 20th Century.
As a columnist, reporter and chief editorial writer for the Monitor and as a correspondent for the three major networks and the BBC, Harsch put international events into historic perspective and earned a reputation as one of the most respected figures in journalism.
Born in Toledo, Ohio, May 25, 1905, Harsch attended prep school in New York and then Williams College, where he met the editor of the Monitor. After two years at Cambridge University in England, he began his first job at the Monitor, rewriting stories from the Boston papers.
From there—thanks to his skills and to some luck—Harsch was on the scene for some of the greatest events of this century. He was in London when Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared war on Germany; was in Australia for Gen. Douglas
MacArthur's famous "I shall return" speech; and was in Hawaii on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
Except for six months in 1939 when he helped Jews in Germany get visas to leave the country, Harsch wrote for the Monitor—eventually commuting to Boston from the Jamestown home that his wife, Anne, bought in the early 1960s while he was in England. In all, he penned more than 2,000 columns for the Monitor.
Harsch's writing career did not end with his retirement in 1989 at age 84. He wrote his autobiography, At the Hinge of History, A Reporter's Story. He is also the author of two books on World War II, Pattern of Conquest and The Curtain Isn't Iron.
He is a two-time winner of the Overseas Press Club Award and won the Edward Weintal Award. He also was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Harsch once told the Providence Journal what he liked most about his job. "It's the interplay of different people and places that makes history, that makes the news. I'm fascinated by all of it."
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame October 1997.
Class of 1996
The Rhode Island Journalism Hall of Fame did not induct any members in 1996.
Class of 1995
Jeanne R. Murphy (1926-2011)
In a career at the Times of Pawtucket of 30 years duration, Jeanne R. Murphy distinguished herself as a versatile and talented reporter and writer.
She won awards from the Associated Press in areas as diverse as sports writing and features. She became well-known for her readable style and great attention to detail. At various times, Murphy wrote hard news, features and sports, and, extensively, on education.
A charter member of Local 185 of the Newspaper Guild, AFL-CIO, Murphy emphasized that above all what matters is the work.
In 1966, she was assigned as the beat reporter covering the Pawtucket Redevelopment Project. For the next seven or eight years she chronicled the work involved and its effects on the city. One of her stories on the efforts of the Pawtucket Renewal Agency to find a way to save a historic building on the grounds of the Slater Mill property, won her first place in the Associated
Press writing competition.
She believed that a reporter's greatest challenge and most satisfying achievements come from covering stories and subjects like the urban renewal program.
"If you can take a budget story or a federal grant story and translate it into something people can truly understand, then you've done your work," she once said.
In addition to covering the renewal project, Murphy was assigned to cover the renovation and revitalization of the Pawtucket Public Library, a major, multi-year project.
Murphy wasrecognized by a number of community organizations including the ARC of Rhode Island, the Pawtucket Heart Health Program, the Pawtucket Day Nursery and the Pawtucket Women's Club.
Her abiding belief was that good journalism is the result of hard work. "This is not a racket," she says of the profession to which she gave three decades.
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame October 1995.
Frank B. Lanning (1905-1987)
For 45 years, until 1982, Frank Lanning was an artist and sports cartoonist for the Providence Journal-Bulletin. A testament to his popularity among the sports-minded reading public is the fact that his originals and copies of his work adorn thousands of home and offices in Rhode Island.
Yet, though most of his artistic work involved sports, his best-known illustration was on a non-sports topic: his portrait of John F. Kennedy published in the Journal-Bulletin the day after Kennedy was assassinated. When the paper reprinted the portrait more than 65,000 copies were sold.
Much of his work lives on also in the freelance drawings he did to adorn the programs of various college and professional teams in Rhode Island.
Though his medium was drawings, Lanning was considered a first-rate "reporter," his sharp eye for detail frequently enabling him to see things that the print reporters never did.
A native of Penns Grove, N.J., he came to Rhode Island as a youth when his father, also a cartoonist, went to work for the Journal-Bulletin. The family moved to Cleveland in the 1920s when his father got a job there. Young Frank served two years in the Army Cavalry, then worked as an artist and art director for an ad agency and feature syndicate in Cleveland. In the early 1930s, he was hired by the Journal-Bulletin as an artist in the gravure department. Soon he found his niche as a sports cartoonist.
His work was often humorous and laudatory, but Lanning never hesitated to criticize from the vantage of his drawing board what he considered to be shady dealing, unethical behavior or bad taste. One of his most popular features was a periodic cartoon called "He Brightened His Corner," which he used as a platform to bestow praise on a person—in sports or not—who exemplified Lanning's high standards of ethics and community service.
Popular in the community, he was often asked to serve as a banquet speaker or master of ceremonies. He also responded to community needs, and for some time was chairman of the Coventry Sewer Committee. He was a founder of, and later was inducted into, the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame October 1995.
Class of 1994
Sarah Updike Goddard (1700-1770)
Sarah Updike Goddard was a rarity among colonial women. She ran a business, and she ran it successfully. She took a failing printing business in Providence started by her son, William, and made it profitable through her superior financial skills and her commitment to printing as a service to the community.
Born in Cocumscussoc, Rhode Island, Sarah Updike married Dr. Giles Goddard of New London, Connecticut in 1735. Soon after he died in 1757, their son William set up a printing shop in Providence which published an almanac and the Providence Gazette and Country Journal. The shop also sold books, legal forms and writing supplies. His mother, Sarah, and his older sister, Mary Katherine, helped run the shop. In 1765 William left for New York, and a year later, Sarah reorganized the then failing firm into "Sarah Goddard and Company."
The Providence Gazette and Country Journal, which first appeared in October, 1762, was the printing shop's most important product. The newspaper, a weekly, was neatly printed and well written. Strongly Whig, it featured poetry, essays and satire. One
of Sarah Goddard's most astute moves as publisher was to print the 12 "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania," penned by John Dickinson. The letters were a major factor in preparing public opinion for a war for independence. Sarah was said to have possessed a keen sense of political timing and an astute knowledge of the power of propaganda.
As the Revolution approached, the pages of the Gazette, like most colonial newspapers, became increasingly political. The paper remained solidly Whig. But Sarah Updike Goddard did not live long enough to see the war that her newspaper had so vigorously supported. In 1768, she moved to Philadelphia to give her son a hand with the newspaper he was publishing there. Sarah died on Jan. 5, 1770, and was buried in Philadelphia.
Isaiah Thomas, the colonial press historian, called Sarah Goddard "a woman of extraordinary judgment, energy, nerve and strong good sense." He also found she met his exacting standards as an "expert and correct compositor."
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame November 1994.
Sevellon Brown (1886-1956)
Few journalists can be credited with life-long significant contributions not only to their newspaper but to their profession as well. Sevellon Brown, who at various times was editor, managing editor and publisher of the Providence Journal, easily qualifies.
A native of Washington, D.C., Brown had to leave public schooling early because of the death of his father. He entered the newspaper business, selling advertising for a Midwest daily, but his primary interest was in gathering news and he returned to Washington to work in a variety of newspaper bureaus. Through his father-in-law, who was the Washington correspondent for the Journal, Brown met Stephen O. Metcalf, the newspaper's publisher. Brown succeeded his father-in-law in the paper's Washington bureau and a year later he was summoned by Metcalf to Providence to gradually take over the news operation.
One of the first things he did as managing editor was to re-establish the concept of separate news staffs for the morning Journal and afternoon Bulletin. The result was an upgrading of the quality of the staffs through intense competition.
Another major change he fostered was the creation and development of the state staff which consisted of news bureaus throughout the state.
Brown, who became editor of the papers in 1938 and publisher in 1942, was a champion of press freedom. One of the mot celebrated victories he oversaw was the successful Supreme Court case against the City of Pawtucket which long had a policy of keeping tax abatement lists secret. During his tenure, the newspapers championed the creation of the State Police, established the Santa Claus fund to aid need children and allowed his news staffers the freedom to investigate all sorts of malfeasance which established the newspaper, in the opinion of Time Magazine, as "the conscience of New England."
One of his most significant accomplishments before he retired in 1954 was establishing an institution that would help working newspaper people hone their professional skills. Today he American Press Institute in Reston, Va., stands as a testimony to an editor and publisher whose life was devoted to perusing excellence in journalism.
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame November 1994.
Zel Levin (1913-2011)
Zel Levin began in the news business at the age of 14 while he was a student at Woonsocket High School. Except for military service in World War II, he has never left the field.
Name an area in daily or weekly, or print or broadcast journalism, or advertising, and Levin has been there. In his '80s, he remains involved in politics, government, education and—yes—journalism in his retirement home in Cape Cod.
He began as the high school reporter for the Woonsocket Call (the principal picked him because he was good in English, he recalls). After graduating from high school in 1930, he became a full-time reporter for the Call. By October, 1941, when he entered the armed services, he was new editor.
Returning to the Call in 1946, he became the paper's executive city editor. In 1950, he left the Call and stated his own newspaper, the Woonsocket Sunday Star, with a news staff of himself and his wife, a former journalist herself.
In 1954, Levin sold the Star and became an advertising executive. Then the Call rehired him to manage its radio station,
WWON. While there, Levin moderated Rhode Island's pioneer radio talk show, "Coffee An'."
After 13 years in radio, he returned to newspapers, this time with the Pawtucket Times, where he was in turn a reporter, assistant managing editor and editorial page editor. He also moderated a panel program on Channel 36, Rhode Island's public TV station.
Levin "retired" again in 1986 and he and his wife moved to Wellfleet, Mass. Where he was chairman of the Democratic Town Committee and vice chairman of the town personnel board, conducts writing and editing seminars and writes book reviews for the local paper and others as far away as Washington.
When he entered the Rhode Island Journalism Hall of Fame, Levin was just short of 81 and still keeping busy, living up to his philosophy that life doesn't end with retirement. He lived to 97.
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame November 1994.
Class of 1993
George R. Farrar Jr. (1917-1993)
George R. Farrar Jr. spent most of his life doing just what he always wanted to do — covering government in a city he loved for a newspaper he loved, the Woonsocket Call.
Born in Woonsocket, Farrar's first encounter with a newspaper was as a high school correspondent. He attended Hill College and then joined the Call as a sports writer in 1941, eventually becoming an editor. After a three-year stint as a public relations director at the old Rhode Island Auditorium, he returned to the Call in 1948 as a copy editor and special assignment reporter.
He and other reporters were assigned to investigate corruption in city government, a series which spurred the adoption of a new form of government for Woonsocket.
For many years, he had a popular column, "Calling in City Hall."
Farrar was considered an expert on municipal government and possessed an institutional memory about the city. He survived successions of mayors and council members and in 1976, the city officially bestowed upon him the title of "The Eighth
Councilman." A plaque to that effect was placed on a city hall press table upon his retirement in 1985.
He was the recipient of numerous local and state citations for his work in covering his community. In 1955, he was a Harvard-MIT Nieman Fellow studying the Urban Renewal Program.
When he retired a city resolution stated Farrar's "style has avoided tainting or slanting an issue, but rather presenting it objectively, substantiated by research and/or statements." With his retirement, the resolution said, "the experience, counsel, guidance and unequaled newspaper accounts of city government will be ending."
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame October 1993.
Stuart O. Hale (1917-1986)
Stuart O. Hale was a newsman who pioneered environmental reporting and then went on into academia and government to champion our natural resources.
A native of Loveland, Colo., Hale received a degree in history from Colorado College and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.
In 1942, he joined the Providence Journal-Bulletin where he was a staff reporter, feature writer, Washington correspondent, city editor and finally a natural resource and environmental writer.
His stories made Rhode Islanders aware of the natural assets, many of them little-known, that abound in the state and garnered numerous awards including the first national Edward L. Meeman Award from Scripps-Howard Newspapers.
In 1966, Hale left the newspaper to become assistant to the dean at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography where he helped the young school attain national prominence and assisted in the establishment of the National
Sea Grant Program.
He was a part of a "think tank" whose recommendations brought about the establishments of the Coastal Resources Management Council and the state Department of Natural Resources.
In 1971, he became the first director of the university's Coastal Resources Center.
While at URI he wrote on many environmental subjects, most notably the book Narragansett Bay: A Friend's Perspective, which captured the history, romance, and natural wonders of the state's greatest asset.
In retirement, he traveled extensively, occasionally writing travel pieces for Rhode Island readers. To the end, he lived up to the description in his book which said that "Stuart Hale brought a Westerner's love of nature and open space to Rhode Island ... and found in Narragansett Bay and the ocean shores of his adopted state a perfect substitute for the prairies, deserts and mountains of the West."
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame October 1993.
Madeliene Corey (1910-1983)
Madeleine Corey, a fashion writer for the Providence Journal-Bulletin for close to 50 years, represented generations of women journalists who, in the male-dominated newsrooms of the day, found it difficult to become news reporters and settled instead to become feature writers.
But Corey did more than just settle—she brought verve and wit to the field of fashion reporting and in the process became the foremost arbiter of style and good taste in Rhode Island.
A native of Providence, Corey was graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design.
She tried teaching art in a public school, hated it after one day and quit. She then applied for a feature writing post at the Journal in 1933. She told her employer she could write features and with her art training illustrate them as well. Her feature writing gave way to a decorating column and that led to her fashion beat.
Her visual trademark was her hats which she wore all the time but her truly significant marks were found in her columns in
which she continually skewered whatever she considered tacky in style and taste.
Considered an expert in her field, Corey regularly covered fashion shows in New York. Besides her frequent columns and stories, she wrote for special fashion sections and hosted a radio show on fashion.
Corey retired in 1980 and died three years later. In her obituary, her newspaper noted that Corey was "throughout her tenure, a fixture on the local fashion and art world, as famous for her hats and fur coats and her uproarious sense of humor as she was for her ability to skewer repulsive clothing trends."
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame October 1993.
Class of 1992
Ben H. Bagdikian (1920-2016)
In American journalism Ben Haig Bagdikian did it all, from the police beat at the Providence Journal to the dean's office of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. At the Journal he turned his initial assignment to the Pawtucket bureau into a share of a Pulitzer Prize. Later, the drab routine of the Providence Police Court spurred him to write a prize-winning series on the lack of treatment for alcoholics.
A tireless and resourceful reporter, he approached assignments with quiet dedication, determination and humor. Throughout his career he brought to his craft a concern for those too powerless to speak for themselves.
His father brought his family to the U.S. in 1920 to escape the Turkish massacre of Armenians. One of seven children, Ben Haig Bagdikian "saves his punch for his typewriter," an interviewer once wrote. That punch produced a series of awards at the Journal including the George Foster Peabody Award in 1951, the Sidney Hillman Award in 1955 and the National Brotherhood Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews in 1957.
Locally, he was honored by the Rhode Island Society for Mental Hygiene, the Rhode Island Anti-Defamation League and the Massachusetts Amvets. He received an honorary degree from Brown University in 1961 and from his alma mater, Clark University of Worcester, in 1963.
At the Journal he quickly progressed to work as a foreign correspondent in Europe and the Middle East in 1956 and finally as Washington Bureau chief.
He moved on from the Journal to become a contributing editor and roving reporter for the Saturday Evening Post winning a National Headliners Award in 1967. From 1967 to 1969 he was project director of the news media technology study for the Rand Corporation. In 1970, he became assistant managing editor for national news and then the first ombudsman at the Washington Post.
During the 1970s, he held a number of prestigious appointments: Nelson Poynter Fellow at Yale University, National correspondent for the Columbia Journalism Review and project director of the Newspaper Survival Study at the Markle Foundation. He produced four books, two that established him as a groundbreaking critic who cast a withering eye at the growing consolidation of newspaper ownership in the United States. His reputation was cemented with the publication of The Media Monopoly in 1983.
In 1977 he joined the faculty of the Graduate School of Journalism at Berkley. He served as dean from 1985 to 1988.
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame December 1992.
Class of 1991
Ben Poulten (1906-1972)
For more than 40 years, Ben Poulten covered the Rhode Island State House and set a standard of excellence for journalistic style, competence, thoroughness and fairness.
A native of Providence, Poulten was a graduate of Classical High School and Brown University. After gaining experience on newspapers in New York and Massachusetts, he joined the Pawtucket Times in 1931.
In his 38 years at the Times, he served in a variety on posts but he quickly won fame and respect for his coverage of state government.
His "Around the State House" column not only won awards from his peers, such as the Associated Press Managing Editors, but even from the General Assembly itself.
The editors cited him for a 1948 story in which he reported that in enacting a new motor vehicle code, the General Assembly inadvertently disbanded every city and town in the state. Poulten's disclosure resulted in a special Assembly session to correct
the mistake.
The same group cited his 1963 story on the "long count" that marked a gubernatorial election. His subsequent column suggesting solutions to the problem resulted in two new election laws being passed in the next session.
In 1957, the Assembly passed a resolution honoring his 25-year career mark, describing his reporting as "favoring no one in writing the day-to-day moving history of state government."
His interest in state government prompted him to be a co-founder of the Rhode Island Model Legislature which to this day gives high school students a taste of the legislative process.
Even after he retired from the Times, he continued to write about state government through the Rhode Island Legislative Press and Information Bureau, providing State House coverage to scores of small Rhode Island newspapers.
On the occasion of Poulten's death, his publisher, Chester M. Spooner, wrote "Ben's objectivity, professionalism and writing skill give him an important place in the history of Rhode Island journalism.
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame November 1991.
John D. Hanlon (1917-1996)
For more than three decades, John D. Hanlon vividly brought the lives of hundreds of people to the attention of readers as the premier sports and general assignment columnist for the Providence Journal and Evening Bulletin.
A native of Winchester, Mass. Hanlon was a 1940 graduate of the University of New Hampshire and was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army. Rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, Hanlon participated in the Invasion of Normandy and other major operations, earning a Silver Star in addition to other awards.
After the war, Hanlon took writing and journalism courses at Biarritz University in France. Returning to the U.S., he became a freelance writer for two years and in 1949 joined the Providence Journal as a general assignment and sports reporter.
His column, "Sports Scope," became a must-read with readers for 18 years. Seven times, he was chosen as the sportswriter of the year for Rhode Island by his peers. Eventually he convinced his editors that he could also produce columns on subjects other than sports. The experiment started as on a once-a-week basis as "Another Scope." His technique and style proved to be so
popular that he was asked to become a general columnist, a position he held for four years. His last four years before retirement were spent as a special feature writer for the Providence Sunday Journal. In retirement, he kept busy writing sports histories for Brown University and Providence College.
James V. Wyman, one of his editors, says Hanlon "was probably more in touch with readers than any reporter I have ever known."
Hanlon was frequently on the road, seeking out subjects from the high and mighty to street people. Hanlon's writing, said Wyman, "radiates credibility. It rings with honesty. It hunkers down with the reader and talks to him as an old friend might do."
On the day Hanlon retired, he pile his belongings into a cardboard box and started to walk out of the newsroom. Suddenly everyone in the newsroom stood and applauded. In the words of Wyman, "It was an unusual tribute to an unusual an, who had given us almost daily lessons in the pursuit of excellence and the celebration of the human spirit."
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame November 1991.
Class of 1990
John C. Quinn (1925-2017)
John C. Quinn spent nearly a half-century in the news business starting as a copy boy at the Providence Journal-Bulletin on Easter Sunday, 1943, and retiring as executive vice president/news and director of Gannett Co., Inc. on Easter Sunday, 1990.
Born in Providence, he was graduated from Providence College in 1945 and received his master of science in journalism from Columbia University a year later.
He spent 23 years with the Journal-Bulletin, rising from copy boy and proceeding through the reporting and editing ranks until he became day managing editor.
In 1966, he joined Gannett as director of news for two Richester, N.Y. newspapers. Named managing editor of the Gannett News Service a year later, he was president of the service when it won the Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for Public Service in 1980.
He succeeded in a number of Gannett news executive positions and eventually was elected to the Gannett Board and the
Gannett Foundation Board of Trustees.
He was the lead planning editor for the boldly innovative USA Today when it was launched in 1982 and served as the paper's editor from 1983 until 1988 when he became editor-in-chief for one year.
Quinn was named president of the Associated Press Managing Editors in 1972 and served as president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1982-1983. He also holds several national awards recognizing his contributions to journalism.
Upon Quinn's retirement from USA Today, a paper that has had a major impact on journalism in the U.S., one of his successors said, "Without John Quinn, Gannett wouldn't be Gannett and USA Today wouldn't be what it has become."
Inducted into the R.I. Journalism Hall of Fame November 1990.