KENNETH G. KRAMER '27

Inducted: May 8, 1998

When Kenneth G. Kramer graduated from DePauw in 1927, his decision to pursue a career in journalism came as no surprise to his professors and classmates at the University. A member of Sigma Delta Chi, the Press Club and student council, Kramer took time off from his studies for just over a year to work as the city editor for the Greensburg, Ind., Daily News. Upon his return he served as news editor and the editor-in-chief of The DePauw his junior and senior years. The Batesville, Ind., native graduated from DePauw with a degree in economics and began a successful journalism career that culminated in a 22-year relationship with Business Week magazine.

Kramer’s first jobs included stints with The Wall Street Journal in San Francisco and Chicago in newspaper circulation and advertising, along with a year as the publisher of the Daily News in Rockford, Ill. In a return to news writing and editing in 1935, he rejoined TheWall Street Journal in Washington, D.C., as the bureau head, a position he would hold for nine years.

During World War II, Kramer left journalism for a time, but in 1946 he was invited to a meeting with James H. McGraw Jr., president of McGraw-Hill, who was searching for a person to take over the helm of a small magazine known as Business Week. Thus began "the remarkable Kramer years," as coined by Business Week publisher C.C. Randolph.

Serving as managing editor, executive editor and editor-in-chief, Kramer oversaw a five-fold increase in staff, the addition of 14 bureaus and eight more editorial departments. "In order to accomplish what we had to do, we had to keep moving into new areas of coverage," Kramer said on his retirement in 1969. "The departments of the magazine were originally designed to match, roughly, the structure of a modern business corporation – as corporations spread out and recognized the importance of other areas, we found new departments to match this interest. My job has been building an outstanding staff and creating new departments to keep up with the considerable growth in business and our coverage of it."

He traveled extensively to speak with business leaders throughout the country to learn what was on their minds. According to Keith Feleyn, chief of correspondents in 1992 for Business Week: "He was the best-known magazine editor of his time in corporate offices."

A loyal Hoosier and DePauw graduate, Kramer received an alumni citation from DePauw in 1952 and Doctor of Letters in 1957.

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