Interview: Gene Foreman

Date of Interview: March 29, 2007
Place of Interview: State College, Pennsylvania
Interviewer: Ford Risley

Biographical Summary
Gene Foreman was born on November 20, 1934, in Fremont, Ohio. He graduated from Arkansas State University where he majored in journalism. After receiving a commission through ROTC, he served briefly in the Army and for 11 years in the Army Reserve. He worked as a reporter and an editor at the Arkansas Gazette; a copy editor at The New York Times; managing editor of the Pine Bluff (Arkansas) Commercial; managing editor of the Arkansas Democrat; and executive news editor of Newsday. In 1973, he joined the Philadelphia Inquirer, and for 25 years he managed newsroom operations under titles of managing editor, executive editor and deputy editor. He was named the inaugural Foster Professor of Communications at Penn State in 1998 and held the post until his retirement in 2007.

Interview Highlights
Foreman speaks about his family; about working part-time at newspapers in high school and college; about working as a reporter and an editor at the Arkansas Gazette during the school integration crisis; about leading the newsrooms at the Pine Bluff Commercial and the Arkansas Democrat; about being executive news editor at Newsday; about his 25 years as a top editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, during which time the newspaper won 18 Pulitzer Prizes; and about being a professor of journalism at Penn State.

Complete Interview: Gene Foreman