Bernard Kilgore

1978

Bernard Kilgore, born November 9, 1908, in Albany, Indiana, was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Tecumseh Kilgore. He built The Wall Street Journal from a small financial newspaper into a nationwide daily for the general business community.

He began his newspaper career as a paper boy in South Bend. In 1925 he entered DePauw University as an economics major and became editor of the campus paper. After graduation in 1929 with membership in Phi Beta Kappa, Kilgore applied for a job on The Journal.

Shortly thereafter, Kilgore was sent to San Francisco to work for the paper’s Pacific Coast edition. Within two years he was promoted to news editor.

In 1935 Kilgore became chief of the Washington bureau. President Roosevelt cited his writing on the National Labor Relations Board as being definitive, even though Kilgore disagreed with many of his policies and frequently criticized them.

On becoming managing editor in 1941, he decided to move the printing of the Monday edition to Sunday, rather than printing it Saturday and having the shop closed on Sundays. The first issue after the move was December 7, 1941, with news of Pearl Harbor.

He became president of Dow Jones & Co. in 1945. Under his direction, The Wall Street Journal grew into the second largest daily newspaper with a circulation of over one million. He was convinced that American businessmen from coast to coast had one interest, and succeeded in creating a national business newspaper.

Kilgore established the Newspaper Fund which makes grants available to journalism teachers, and was co-author of a book, Do You Belong in Journalism?

Columbia University bestowed its Journalism Award upon him in 1961.

Kilgore retired from the company in March , 1966 and was then elected chairman of the board.

Upon his death on November 14, 1967, Kilgore was survived by his wife Mary Louise (Throop), a daughter and two sons.