CT Journalism Hall of Fame: Bob Eddy

Bob Eddy was publisher and editor of the Hartford Courant. He worked at the Courant from 1962 to 1974 after many years as a journalist in the Midwest.

Eddy was instrumental in pushing the Courant’s coverage into the suburbs. He was a past president of the New England Society of Newspaper Editors, and an active member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Associated Press Managing Editors and several other journalism groups.

He served in Military Intelligence in World War II. Eddy traveled extensively and wrote from places like Africa, Chile and the Middle East. He won bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Minnesota and later was given that school’s highest award for outstanding journalism standards and for promoting journalism education. He won a Fulbright to lecture on journalism in India and taught at the University of Nebraska and Syracuse.

Eddy was a founder of the Connecticut Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. In that role, he created the SPJ Foundation that awards annual scholarships to promising young journalists to help them to afford a college education. SPJ’s largest scholarship is named for him.

Bob Eddy died in 1988 at the age of 1970.

(Excerpts from the Hartford Courant)