Edwin Robert Bayley was born August 24, 1918, in Chicago, IL. He attended public schools in Madison, Milwaukee and Appleton, Wisconsin. He received a B.A. (cum laude) from Lawrence College (now Lawrence University) in 1940. He attended the Yale University graduate school (1940-1941), working toward a Ph.D. in English. In 1942, Bayley was commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve, with active duty as a Navy armed guard officer on merchant ships. He was discharged a lieutenant in 1946. After his discharge, Bayley worked as a general reporter for the Milwaukee Journal, and was soon assigned city hall. A year later, he became the paper's chief political reporter, covering the Wisconsin legislature and local, state and national political campaigns and conventions, including the presidential campaigns in 1948, 1952 and 1956. In 1959, Bayley left the Milwaukee Journal to become executive secretary to Governor Gaylord Nelson, serving as chief of staff and speech writer. In February 1961, Bayley became director of public information for the Peace Corps and a member of the seven-man committee that formulated policy for the Peace Corps. He directed the dissemination of information to the media, and with Peace Corps Director Sargent Shriver and two others, toured 11 countries in Africa and Asia to win support for the deployment of Peace Corps volunteers. In September 1961, he was appointed a special assistant to President John F. Kennedy with the title of special assistant in the office of the press secretary for the development of special projects. He represented the president on inter-departmental committees involving information and the hiring of minorities, wrote speeches and did research for the President's meeting with newspaper editors and publishers, and occasionally traveled with Mr. Kennedy as acting press secretary. In December 1961, at the personal request of the president, he accepted appointment as Director of Public Affairs for the State Department's Agency for International Development (AID). He held this position two years, until he was appointed editor of public affairs programs for Nation Educational Television (NET), in January 1964, then promoted to vice president for administration in 1965. On March 1, 1969, Bayley began a 16-year tenure as professor and founding dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. Bayley died on October 29, 2002.
From the description of Bayley, Edwin R. (Edwin Robert), 1918-2002 (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration). naId: 10568734
