Dennis, Charles Henry, 1860-1943

Chicago newspaper editor.

Born in Decatur, Illinois, in 1860, Charles Henry Dennis was a newspaperman all his life. After graduation from the University of Illinois, he began his career as a reporter and in 1882 joined the staff of the Chicago Daily News which was owned by Melville Stone and Victor F. Lawson. When Lawson became sole owner of the News in 1891, he made Dennis the managing editor of the morning edition known as the Chicago Record. When that newspaper was sold in 1901, Dennis became associate editor and chief editorial writer of the Daily News, where he continued to be Lawson's chief editorial assistant until Lawson's death in 1925. After the Daily News was bought by Walter A. Strong in 1925, Dennis continued as editor until he retired in 1934. For forty years Dennis wrote and/or edited important editorials for the Daily News, and he was particularly influential in organizing and managing American commentators and correspondents in major foreign news areas, such as Edward Price Bell, John T. McCutcheon, Edgar Mowrer, Paul Scott Mowrer, LeRoy T. Vernon, and Junius B. Wood. Dennis was the author of two books, Eugene Field's Creative Years (1924) and Victor Lawson, His Time and Work (1935). He belonged to many clubs, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the National Press Club of Washington, D.C., received two honorary degrees, and was greatly esteemed by his associates. Married twice, Dennis had four children. He died in Evanston, Illinois, in 1943.

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