Clark R. Mollenhoff (April 16, 1921 – March 2, 1991) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist, an attorney who served as Presidential Special Counsel, and a columnist for ''

The Des Moines Register ''The Des Moines Register'' is the daily morning newspaper of Des Moines, Iowa. History Early period The first newspaper in Des Moines was the ''Iowa Star''. In July 1849, Barlow Granger began the paper in an abandoned log cabin by the junction ...

''.

Life and career

Born in

Burnside, Iowa Burnside is an unincorporated community in Webster County, Iowa, United States. Its elevation is 1,138 feet (347 m). Burnside has a post office with the ZIP code 50521. History Present-day Burnside was laid out as a town named Buchanan ...

on April 16, 1921, to Margaret and Raymond E. Mollenhoff, Clark R. Mollenhoff graduated from

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

Webster City, Iowa Webster City is a city in Hamilton County, Iowa, United States. The population was 7,825 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Hamilton County. Webster City is known as 'Boone River Country', as the Boone River meanders along the east sid ...

. He began working for ''The Des Moines Register'' in 1942 while attending Drake University law school, from which he graduated in 1944. Mollenhoff then served two years in the U.S. Navy before returning to the ''Register''.Mollenhoff biography
at ''

'' Accessed June 6, 2015 In 1958 Mollenhoff won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, for a series exposing racketeering and fraud in the Teamsters Union. His work led to a successful crack-down on corruption within the Teamsters. In 1959 he received the Elijah P. Lovejoy, Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award as well as an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Colby College. Eisenhower Fellowships selected Mollenhoff as a USA Eisenhower Fellow in 1960. In 1965, Mollenhoff published ''Despoilers of Democracy'', which provided details of corruption associated with Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson (before he became president), in particular the Billie Sol Estes swindles and the F-111#Tactical Fighter Experimental (TFX), TFX scandal of 1963, investigation into which was suspended after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In 1969 he served for a year as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon, after which he became the ''Register''s Washington bureau chief. In 1977 Mollenhoff became a professor at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia while continuing to write a column for the ''Register''. In 1988 he wrote a biography of John Vincent Atanasoff, the Iowa State University, Iowa State College professor who invented the first electronic digital computer in 1939. Mollenhoff's book gives the Atanasoff perspective of the 1973 federal court decision of ''Honeywell v. Sperry Rand'' that ruled the ENIAC computer patent invalid, and drew attention to Atanasoff's work. Mollenhoff wrote twelve books and won many additional awards. While living in Lexington, Virginia, Clark R. Mollenhoff died of cancer on March 2, 1991 at the age of 69. The Clark Mollenhoff Award for Excellence in Investigative Reporting is awarded annually by the Institute on Political Journalism for the best investigative journalism article in a newspaper or magazine.Clark Mollenhoff Award
Accessed June 6, 2015

Books

*''Washington Cover-Up: How Bureaucratic Secrecy Promotes Corruption and Waste in the Federal Government'' (1962), Doubleday. (2007 edition) *''Tentacles of Power: The Story of Jimmy Hoffa'' (1965), World Publishing *''Despoilers of Democracy: The real story of what Washington propagandists, arrogant bureaucrats, mismanagers, influence peddlers, and outright corrupters are doing to our Federal Government'' (1965), Doubleday *''The Pentagon: Politics, Profits and Plunder'' (1967), G.P. Putnam's Sons *''George Romney: Mormon in Politics'' (1968), Meredith Press *''Strike Force: Organized Crime and the Government'' (1972), Prentice Hall, *''The Man Who Pardoned Nixon'' (1976), The K.S. Giniger Company, Inc., *''Game Plan for Disaster'' (1976), W.W. Norton & Co., *''The President Who Failed: Carter out of Control'' (1980), Free Press, *''Investigative Reporting: From Courthouse to White House'' (1981), Macmillan, * *''Ballad to an Iowa Farmer: and Other Reflections'' (1991), Iowa State University Press

References

External links

American Journalism Review
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mollenhof, Clark 1921 births 1991 deaths People from Webster County, Iowa American male journalists 20th-century American journalists Writers from Des Moines, Iowa Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting winners Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award recipients People from Webster City, Iowa Military personnel from Iowa 20th-century American biographers 20th-century American male writers American male biographers Drake University Law School alumni