W. D. MAXWELL '36

Inducted: May 9, 1997

Once described as an imaginative and innovative editor, fertile in ideas and energetic in execution, W.D. Maxwell left his mark as an editor and publisher of The Chicago Tribune. He believed the formula for newspaper success was obsessive curiosity, hard work and the ability to distinguish right from wrong.

Born in Greencastle, Indiana, W.D. "Don" Maxwell attended DePauw University from 1917-1920 where he became editor of the DePauw Daily during his junior year. He spent his summers working for the Cleveland Press as a general assignment reporter. He also earned $6.00 an hour writing articles for the Greencastle Banner-Graphic and the Greencastle Herald. He also wrote for The Indianapolis News. Mr. Maxwell always credited his mother, Grace Beck Maxwell, and English teacher at Greencastle High School, who helped edit his contribution to the local papers, with having taught him to write concisely.

W.D. Maxwell joined the Tribune staff in 1920. He wore several hats while at the Tribune working as a reporter, copy reader, sports editor, news editor, city editor and assistant managing editor. In 1930 he transferred to the news side where managed to compel other sports editors to take notice of the newly evolving sport of professional football. He was the first sports editor to give an eight-column line to the pro game in a Bears contest. The Associated Press, for the first time, began to carry results of other pro games. His service won him a citation from the Chicago chapter of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame.

After advancing to news editor at the age of 30, Maxwell was instrumental in building a case and obtaining a confession from a killer in one of the most sensational murder cases of the 1940s.

Maxwell served as a director of the Associated Press from 1958-1966. He also served as a director of the Inter-American Press Association and as a member of the advisory board for the Pulitizer Prize awards from 1958-1969.

From 1969 until his retirement in 1975, W.D. Maxwell served as editorial chairman of the Tribune Company and its subsidiaries which included 6 other newspapers, 4 television stations, 5 radio stations and 2 paper mills.

Serving as a board of trustee member at DePauw from 1956-1966, Mr. Maxwell was also a life member of the W.C. DePauw Society.

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