Media Wall Of Fame

John Frost (Jack) Bridge '42

Inducted: October, 2007

John Frost (Jack) Bridge ’42 enjoyed a distinguished career with Dow Jones that spanned 40 years. He joined the company in 1938. After graduating from DePauw University in 1942, Bridge served a stint in the Navy before being hired at The Wall Street Journal as a reporter in 1946. Over the years he served the Journal as Page One editor, and Features editor for the Editorial page.

In 1961 he added duties at a new, weekly Dow Jones paper, the National Observer, as one of the founding editors. For more than a decade, he assigned and edited the stories for the front page of the Journal while also presiding over the editorial page and then, as managing editor, over the front page of the National Observer.

“He was a remarkable editor and patient teacher,” according to Wesley Pruden, who worked under Mr. Bridge at the National Observer and went on to head The Washington Times. “He could weave magic with a No. 2 pencil in the days before computers, when a story wasn’t finished until a demanding editor had finished taking it apart and putting it back together. The insertion of a word or phrase here, the deletion of a few superfluous words there, and soon a piece of pedestrian prose sang with the voice of a cathedral choir.”

William E. Giles, another editor of The Washington Times who worked for Mr. Bridge at The Wall Street Journal and the National Observer, was quoted as calling him a “master craftsman” in Bridge’s obituary in May, 2002.

“Jack asked reporters only for facts, details and ‘meaty’ quotes. He wanted two facts a line, for ‘color’ he wanted descriptive specifics, not just a ‘cigarette’ but a ‘Marlboro;’ not ‘a weapon,’ but a ‘.32-caliber handgun.’ He wanted quotes that added something to a story and moved it forward. On rare occasions at the Journal, when a story came in that was beyond redemption, Jack would quietly rise at his desk in the newsroom, light a match to the copy, and let the ashes fall to the floor. Without a word.”

“Jack knew how to make complicated stories come alive,” Giles continued. “To illustrate the impact of highway bond financing in the 1950s, Jack assigned a young Journal reporter to take the family Ford and race the 20th Century Limited from New York City to Chicago over the newly completed turnpikes. Not a red light (or a speeding ticket) all the way. The Ford won.”

While at DePauw, Bridge was active at the campus newspaper, The DePauw, and was a lifetime member of Sigma Delta Chi. In later years he was a member of the National Press Club.

 

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