Interview: Pat Walker
Date of Interview: May 7, 2021
Place of Interview: Mays Landing, New Jersey
Interviewer: Ford Risley
Biographical Summary
Pat Walker was born in Newark, New Jersey. She graduate from Ohio State University with a degree in journalism. She worked as a copy editor and reporter at the Journal and Courier in West Lafayette, Indiana, and later as city editor at Today’s Spirit in Hatboro, Pennsylvania. In 1986, she joined the Bucks County Courier Times as a copy editor. During the next 22 years, she served as night city editor and editor of the Calkins Media-owned daily. In 2008, when the editorial operations of the three Calkins newspapers was combined, she became editor not only the Courier Times, but the Doylestown Intelligencer and the Burlington County Times. She retired in 2017.
Interview Highlights
Pat Walker speaks about her family and education; about how she got interested in journalism; about the first newspapers where she worked; about joining the Courier Times and eventually becoming editor; about important stories the newspaper covered; about the role of the Courier Times in Bucks County; about the struggles of being a woman working in journalism; about becoming editor of the three Calkins Media newspapers in the Philadelphia area when the editorial operations were combined; about the impact of the Internet and online news on newspapers; and about her decision to retire.