Remembering a Pioneer: IWMF's Deborah Howell
The first woman to become top editor of a large American newspaper, legendary journalist Deborah Howell died a year ago, when she was hit by a car while photographing the landscape of New Zealand.
Howell, 68, an IWMF board member, was a pathfinder who “poured herself into her work” but always found time to work for the foundation, said Judy Woodruff, IWMF board member and chair of the Courage Committee. Her death, she said, “was a giant loss – she had so much more to give.”
Howell scaled the male-dominated heights of journalism during three decades as an editor in Minnesota and Washington, where she expanded coverage of family and women’s issues in the media.
Howell, managing editor of The St. Paul Pioneer Press and city editor of The Minneapolis Tribune, was Washington bureau chief for the Newhouse newspaper chain for 15 years. From 2005 to 2008 she was The Washington Post’s ombudsman.
IWMF board member Susan King described Howell as “such a force, it’s difficult not to think of her in motion…Without Deborah’s management skills and commitment to IWMF we may not have made it through the transition” in staff years ago.
Howell, who is survived by her husband C. Peter McGrath and several stepchildren, once wrote in the Post, “I truly believe a democracy can't operate without a free press. But I also can't live without 'Doonesbury' or 'Opus' on Sunday."