Robert Gruenberg (September 13, 1922 – September 29, 1992) was a

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

political journalist best known for his work with the ''

Chicago Daily News The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. History The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty ...

''. Born in Chicago, after high school he served on the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was ...

in Wisconsin. Gruenberg then returned to Chicago in 1938, where he began clerking for the ''Chicago Daily News'' before being drafted into the Army in 1943. He served in the Pacific Theater and in the occupation army in Japan through December 1946, rising to the rank of staff sergeant and working in communications. Returning to the ''Daily News'', he worked his way up at the paper as a night-shift reporter while attending

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

, having attended Herzl Community College (now

Malcolm X College Malcolm X College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago, is a two-year college located on the Near West Side of Chicago, Illinois. It was founded as Crane Junior College in 1911 and was the first of the City Colleges. Crane ceased operation durin ...

) before going off to the war. Gruenberg became a full-fledged political reporter for the ''Chicago Daily News'' after finishing his Army tour of duty in 1946. He began covering state and local affairs while finishing his degree at Northwestern. In 1956, he shared in the ''Daily News''

Pulitzer Prize for Public Service The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. It recognizes a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper or news site through the use of its journali ...

reporting for the paper's uncovering the theft of state funds by Illinois state auditor

Orville Hodge Orville Enoch Hodge (October 1, 1904 – December 29, 1986) was the Auditor of Public Accounts (predecessor to the Office of Illinois Comptroller, Comptroller) of the state of Illinois from 1952 to 1956. During his term in office, he embezzle ...

. In 1961, Gruenberg left the ''Daily News'' and moved to Washington to join the metropolitan news staff of the Washington Star. After almost two years there, he became Washington Bureau chief for the '' Chicago's American'' from 1963 to 1965, then returned to the ''Daily News'' in Chicago for three years. His reporting on the Civil Rights Movement won him the first James P. McGuire Award of the Illinois

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...

in 1968. He was promoted to the ''Daily News'' Washington bureau in 1968. After the ''Daily News'' shut down in 1978, he worked with the Communications Department of the

National Education Association The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest labor union in the United States. It represents public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college st ...

until his retirement. He died in 1992.Kenan Heise
"Robert Gruenberg, 70, Journalist For Chicago Daily News, American"
''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'', October 1, 1992.

References

External links

Robert Gruenberg Papers
at

The Newberry Library The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities. It is located in Chicago, Illinois, and has been free and open to the public since 1887. The Newberry's mission is to foster a deeper understanding of our wor ...

1922 births 1992 deaths Journalists from Chicago American political journalists 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American journalists American male journalists Civilian Conservation Corps people United States Army personnel of World War II 20th-century American male writers {{US-journalist-1920s-stub