Newspaper Editor and Publisher, Pulitzer Prize Winner. He was considered a visionary of journalism in the sense that he belonged to a breed of publishers, who were strong-willed, competitive, and politically conscious. His nationwide column, "The Editor's Notebook," won him the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Born in Bluefield, West Virginia, he attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York after completing high school but never graduated, leaving early to enlist in the Army. In 1920 he started at his father's newspaper, The Akron Beacon-Journal, as sportswriter, moving up to become managing editor before inheriting the paper in 1933. In 1937 he bought the Miami Herald. During the latter part of World War II, he took leave from the newspaper business to serve as Director of the US Office of Censorship, London, England. By 1973, his portfolio included fifteen newspapers and the following year, he merged his company with Ridder Publications to form Knight-Ridder Newspapers Incorporated and by 1981 it consisted of 32 newspapers in 17 states, with a circulation of 3.6 million daily. With his brother James L. Knight, he co-founded what would become the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. In 1969 he received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award as well as an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Colby College in Waterville, Maine. His other honors and awards include the John Peter Zenger Award, the William Allen White Foundation Award, the National Press Award, and the Poor Richard Gold Medal of Achievement Award. He died of a heart attack in Akron, Ohio. The John S. Knight Center, a large convocation located in downtown Akron, Ohio, is named in his honor, as is the John S. Knight Auditorium, a large lecture hall in Leigh Hall and the John S. Knight Reading Room in the Bierce Library, at the University of Akron.