JAMES C. BARBIERI '50

Inducted: October 11, 2002

James C. Barbieri '50 grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois and entered DePauw as a Rector Scholar. His journalism career began as an undergraduate, working at The Chicago American, where he wrote sports and feature stories. He became editor of The DePauw newspaper his senior year, was named a Pulliam Journalism Scholar, and graduated summa cum laude with a major in economics in 1950.

After graduation he joined the staff of the Bluffton Evening News-Banner in Bluffton, Indiana, where he has served since, except for two years in the infantry and signal operations during the Korean War. Barbieri gained experience working in all the newspaper’s departments in addition to general reporting and editorial writing. Later he became an officer and director of the corporation, and in 1975, became the paper’s general manager.

In the 1980’s, he won seven major state press association awards, including four first place honors. He was invited to White House conferences with five Presidents and has interviewed six of them. He was in the Kremlin when the Soviet Union came to an end, and was one of the few American journalists to meet with then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

Barbieri's senior yearbook picture

In 1986 he became co-owner, president and publisher of the News-Banner and continued in that role for the next twelve years. He now serves as Chairman Emeritus while continuing to contribute stories to the paper. He is Indiana chair of the National Newspaper Association, an elder of the Presbyterian Church, and has been a scoutmaster and baseball coach. He was chosen by his class as their 50th Reunion speaker and received an alumni citation.  In October of 2002, Barbieri was given the DePauw University "Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award for Media" during Old Gold Weekend.

Small towns have a special relationship with their newspapers and the people who work for them. As a single source for information, local papers must strive to be accurate, reliable and responsible to their readers. In over fifty years at the Bluffton News-Banner,James C. Barbieri has embodied these attributes, while also proving that small-town journalists play a very important role in the communities they serve.

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