John Strohmeyer

Not to be confused with John Strohmayer.

John Strohmeyer (June 26, 1924 – March 3, 2010) won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for his editorial writing on reducing racial tensions in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Early life and education

Strohmeyer was born in Boston, Massachusetts on June 26, 1924. After working as a night reporter for the now-defunct Bethlehem Globe-Times in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania while attending Moravian College, he spent three years in the United States Navy during World War II, ultimately attaining the rank of lieutenant. A graduate of Muhlenberg College (1947) and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism (1948), Strohmeyer was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University during the 1952–1953 academic year while employed by The Providence Journal.

Career

In 1956, Strohmeyer returned to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he served as editor of the Globe-Times until 1984. He won an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship in 1984 to research and write about the decline of the American steel industry, a project that evolved into Crisis in Bethlehem: Big Steel's Struggle to Survive, published by Adler & Adler in 1986 and University of Pittsburgh Press in 1994.

In 1992, Robert Atwood recruited Strohmeyer to teach journalism at the University of Alaska Anchorage in a position endowed by Atwood. While there, Strohmeyer wrote Extreme Conditions: Big Oil and the Transformation of Alaska. Strohmeyer also wrote Atwood's biography, which was never published due to a dispute which arose after Atwood's death between Strohmeyer and Atwood's daughter Elaine.

Death

Strohmeyer died of heart failure on March 3, 2010, in Crystal River, Florida.