Knight, John Shively, 1894-1981

Born October 26, 1894, in Bluefield, West Va., as the second son of Charles Landon and Clara Irene Scheifly Knight, John Shively grew up in Akron, Ohio. By 1915, Charles Landon Knight acquired full control of the Akron Beacon Journal, having worked his way up from advertising manager to editor and publisher in 1909. His college education at Cornell University was interrupted in 1917 as he left to enlist in the Army, eventually seeing action in the Argonne. Eventually, Knight returned to Akron and became a sports journalist, writing under the pseudonym "Walker." In 1921, Knight married Katherine "Kitty" McLain, who died unexpectedly in 1929 and left him three sons: John Shively Jr., Charles Landon, and Franklin. Already Managing Editor of the Beacon Journal by 1925, he married a second time (in 1932) to Beryl Zoller Comstock. In 1933, his father died and John inherited the positions of editor and publisher of the Beacon Journal. The Akron paper was the first of a chain of newspapers under Knight's ownership. Upon purchasing the Miami Herald in 1937 for $2 million, he bought and subsequently closed the Miami Tribune and the Scripps-Howard Akron Times-Press. Very quickly he acquired control of the Detroit Free Press and the Chicago Daily News. Knight expressed his personal views and critical acceptance of Akron in "The Editor's Notebook," a weekly column he wrote for almost 40 years. His major journalistic concern was editorial integrity and the preservation of a free press in the United States and abroad. During World War II, Knight temporarily departed from the newspaper circuit to become director of the United States Office of Censorship in London, where he served for one year as liaison for Great Britain and North Africa. In 1974, the Knight Newspapers merged with the California-based Ridder Publications, and Knight was widowed for second time. In 1976, Knight married Mary Elizabeth Augustus and retired as editorial chairman of Knight-Ridder Newspapers, Inc., having accumulated 26 Pulitzer Prizes altogether. During his retirement, Knight concentrated his efforts on raising thoroughbred race horses at his Fourth Estate Stables in Miami. On June 16, 1981, Knight succumbed to a heart attack at the age of 86, only 7 months after his third wife had passed away. At the time of his death, Knight-Ridder Newspapers, Inc., consisted of 32 newspapers and four television stations, and had been estimated to be valued at $245 million, the bulk of which went to the Knight Foundation, established by Knight in 1940 in memory of his father.

From the description of John S. Knight papers, 1894-1981 bulk (1920-1981). (University of Akron). WorldCat record id: 36180337

...