Eugene Smith Pulliam (September 7, 1914 – January 20, 1999) was the publisher of the Indianapolis Star and the Indianapolis News from 1975 until his death. He was also a supporter of First Amendment rights, an advocate of press freedom, and opposed McCarthyism. The Kansas native, DePauw University graduate (class of 1935), and World War II veteran of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Naval Reserve pursued a six-decade-long career in journalism that included work for the United Press new agency, as news director of WIRE-AM in Indianapolis, and in various editorial and publishing positions at the Star and News before he succeeded his father, Eugene C. Pulliam, as publisher of the two newspapers. During Eugene S. Pulliam's tenure as publisher of the Star, it received two Pulitzer Prizes; one in 1975 for a series of articles on police corruption in Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, and another in 1991 for investigation of medical malpractice in Indiana. Pulliam also became executive vice president of Central Newspapers, Inc., the media holding company his father founded in 1934. Dan Quayle, Eugene C. Pulliam's grandson and Eugene S. Pulliam's half nephew, served as the 44th Vice President of the United States from 1989 to 1993.
Early life
Pulliam was born on September 7, 1914, in Atchison, Kansas, to Myrta (Smith) and Eugene C. Pulliam. At that time his father was editor and publisher of the Atchison Daily Champion, the first of forty-six newspapers that he eventually owned. In 1915 Eugene C. Pulliam sold the Daily Champion to purchase the Franklin Evening Star and moved the family to Indiana. Myrta Pulliam died in 1917 and Eugene C. Pulliam married Martha Ott (1891–1991) of Franklin, Indiana, in 1919. Eugene C. and Martha (Ott)) Pulliam had two daughters. Eugene S. Pulliam's half-sisters were Martha Corinne Pulliam, who later married James Cline Quayle, and Helen Suzanne Pulliam, who later married William Murphy. In 1923 Eugene C. Pulliam sold the Franklin Evening Star and purchased the Lebanon Reporter. "Young Gene" as he was known began working during his youth delivering the Lebanon Reporter and the Indianapolis News. He also had an apprenticeship at the Reporter.
Pulliam enrolled at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, and earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1935. Pulliam edited the DePauw Daily, an independent student newspaper that his father founded when he was a student at DePauw, and served as president of Sigma Delta Chi, a journalism fraternity his father founded in 1909 with nine other DePauw students. Sigma Delta Chi was later renamed the Society of Professional Journalists. Eugene S. Pulliam was a DePauw University trustee for twenty years.
Marriage and family
Pulliam was married from 1943 until his death in 1999 to Jane (Bleecker) Pulliam (1918–2003). They were the parents of three children. Their two daughters were Myrta Pulliam, director of electronic news and information at Indianapolis Newspapers at the time of her father's death, and Deborah S. Pulliam, a textile artist, freelance writer, and historian. Their son Russell Pulliam was an editor at the Indianapolis News at the time of his father's death. Dan Quayle, the 44th Vice President of the United States from 1989 to 1993, was the son of Pulliam's half-sister, Martha C. (Pulliam) Quayle and her husband, James C. Quayle.
Career
Early years
After graduating from DePauw University in 1935, Pulliam worked for the United Press news service in Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; and Buffalo, New York. Pulliam returned to Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1938 to serve as news director of WIRE-AM, one of the radio stations his father also owned. During World War II Pulliam served in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Naval Reserve. He retired in 1948 as a lieutenant commander. In the meantime, Pulliam's father formed Central Newspapers, Inc., in 1934 as a holding company for his publishing interests. During his father's sixty-three years as a newspaper publisher, he acquired forty-six newspapers across the United States. In addition to the Franklin Evening Star and the Lebanon Reporter, Central Newspapers holdings included, among others, the Indianapolis Star, the Arizona Republic, the Phoenix Gazette, and the Indianapolis News.