Halls of Fame

Marquis W. Childs – 2008

Marquis W. Childs began his career at the Post-Dispatch in 1926, winning a Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary in 1970, when he was serving as the paper’s contributing editor. The winning article and Childs’ continuing criticism of the Vietnam War earned him a spot of President Nixon’s list of enemies.

During his 47 years at the paper, Childs interviewed world leaders, including private sessions with Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy. He spent most of his career with the paper at its Washington bureau and wrote a syndicated column for United Press International for many years, even after his retirement from the Post in 1974.

Childs authored many books during his career, including his memoirs in 1975.

Irving Dilliard – 2006

Irving Dilliard created a national reputation for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch during his tenure as its editorial page editor from 1949-1957, capping a 30-year career. From the Great Depression through the years of the Eisenhower presidency, Dilliard wrote over 10,000 editorials, and after he retired in 1960 he went on to teach constitutional law at Princeton. A lifelong resident of Collinsville, IL, Dilliard went on to write and edit books based on the papers of Supreme Court Justices Louis D. Brandeis and Hugo L. Black. In 1975, Supreme Court Justice William Douglas was asked which journalists knew the court best. Douglas replied, “There is only one. His name is Irving Dilliard.” 

Richard Dudman – 2008

Working as a Washington correspondent with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Richard Dudman used his adventuresome style to post stories from such places as Argentina, the Middle East, China and Vietnam. In 1970 he was captured by Vietcong guerillas in Cambodia while he was covering the Vietnam War – this became the basis of his book “40 Days with the Enemy.” Back in Washington, he led the bureau in obtaining some of the first copies of the Pentagon Papers, the top-secret Pentagon account of the Vietnam War (which was contrary to what the public was being told). For this, his name appeared on Richard Nixon’s “enemies list.”

Martin Duggan – 2006

Martin Duggan’s career in St. Louis media spans some 60 years but it’s as a journalist that St. Louis first came to know Duggan. He calls his stint as the news editor of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat his favorite job, but it was at the helm of the paper’s editorial page from 1972 to 1984 that generations of St. Louisans remember him best. For years, he remained the conservative conscience of the city and region. Duggan left the Globe in 1984. In 1986, Duggan was inspired to create Donnybrook after watching Sunday morning television shows such as The McLaughlin Group. Duggan saw his role on the show less as host or moderator, and more of provocateur. It should come as no surprise to fans of the show that the man who rode herd on the rowdy panel was a Marine during World War II. Duggan has said, “Well, I’m a conservative, but I’ve got more friends among the Democrats than the Republicans. They’re friendly people, for one thing, and there are more of them.”

Linda Eardley – 2011

Linda Eardley showed up for her first day of work at the Post-Dispatch in 1969 to see row after row of white men, typing, smoking and yelling. She would soon learn that she was the first woman reporter hired onto the city desk. After a few months of working general assignment, Eardley was assigned to work with other female writers for the now-defunct Women’s Page and Sunday Society Page. In 1972, she returned to the increasingly diverse city desk where she worked for the next 24 years as a general assignment and Illinois reporter, education reporter, assistant Illinois editor and fill-in for a variety of day and night editors. Among her most memorable stories, she listed those on  excessive spending by the St. Louis Schools superintendent; the murder-for-hire of the highly insured inventor Victor Null; the St. Louis schools desegregation case; and being a part of the on-going coverage of major stories such as the flood of 1993. She retired from the Post-Dispatch in 2005.

Daniel Fitzpatrick – 2006

Fitzpatrick twice won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. Born in Superior, Wisconsin, in 1891, Daniel Robert Fitzpatrick studied anatomy and life drawing for two years at the Art Institute of Chicago before getting his first cartooning job at the Chicago Daily-News in 1911. Two years later he moved to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He retired in 1958 after 45 years at the newspaper. Acknowledged by many as the dean of editorial cartoonists, Fitzpatrick strongly supported the rights of the underdog while attacking the conservative establishment. During his time at the newspaper he created some 14,000 editorial drawings that championed the underdog.