Bakst, M. Charles (Merrill Charles)

Merrill Charles Bakst was born on Feb. 22, 1944 in Fall River, Massachusetts. His parents were Lester Bakst, a lawyer, and Anna Horvitz Bakst, Brown '31.

M. Charles Bakst attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts and later Brown University from 1962 to 1966. While at Brown University, Bakst worked for the Brown Daily Herald, serving as editor-in-chief in 1965, and for the Providence Journal as a summer intern.

In 1967, Bakst earned a graduate degree in Journalism from Columbia University. He began working for the Providence Journal covering education in 1968, and became a fulltime political writer in 1972. From 1987 to 1995, Bakst was the Journal's government affairs editor. In 1995 until his retirement in 2008, Bakst was the fulltime political columnist, writing at least three times a week.

A regular participant in numerous local television programs, M. Charles Bakst appeared as a regular commentator and moderator for shows including Channel 10's "10 News Conference", Channel 12's "News Makers", Channel 6's "6 News on the Record", and Channel 36's "A Lively Experiment".

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