Robert B. Semple Jr. (born August 12, 1936, in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

, Missouri) is the associate editor of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' editorial page, and a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-winning journalist. Semple was raised in

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

and educated at

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, and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, where he was Chairman of the Yale Daily News and was elected to Elihu, a senior society. Semple subsequently received an M.A. in history from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1961.The New York Times Editorial Board, Masthead, The New York Times
/ref> In the fall of 1963, he joined the

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

bureau of ''The New York Times'', covering housing and civil rights stories during the

Johnson Johnson may refer to: People and fictional characters *Johnson (surname), a common surname in English * Johnson (given name), a list of people * List of people with surname Johnson, including fictional characters *Johnson (composer) (1953–2011) ...

administration. Semple spent a year covering President Johnson himself, and served as

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

correspondent during Richard Nixon's first term in office. He served thereafter as deputy national editor (1973–75), London bureau chief (1975–77), foreign editor (1977–82), editor of the Op-Ed Page (1982–88) and associate editor of the Editorial Page (1988 to present). Semple received the Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for his editorials on

environmental Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

issues, including his editorials about a proposed mine that would have been built on the edge of Yellowstone National Park.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Semple, Robert B. Jr. Living people Phillips Academy alumni Yale University alumni American male journalists The New York Times journalists The New York Times editors Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing winners 1936 births