Howard Simons (June 3, 1929 – June 13, 1989) was the managing editor of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' at the time of the

Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's contin ...

, and later curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

Early life and education

Simons was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family and raised in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...

, and received a BA from

Union College Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...

Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

in 1951 and a master's degree a year later from the

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism s ...

. After service in the Korean War, he became a science reporter in Washington for several news organizations, and joined ''The Post'' as a science writer in 1961. He became assistant managing editor in 1966 and managing editor in 1971.

Watergate coverage

According to Carol Felsenthal of

Politico Magazine ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and inter ...

, Simons took the first phone call, on June 18, 1972, from Democratic National Committee general counsel Joseph Califano Jr., about a break-in, the night before, at DNC headquarters at the Watergate complex. Simons took charge and with help from fellow editors

Barry Sussman Barry Sussman (July 10, 1934 – June 1, 2022) was an American editor, author, and public opinion analyst who dealt primarily with public policy issues. He was city news editor at ''The Washington Post'' at the time of the Watergate break-in a ...

and Harry Rosenfeld, guided Woodward and Bernstein, and championed the young reporters for what became a national story. Simons is credited with dubbing

Mark Felt William Mark Felt Sr. (August 17, 1913 – December 18, 2008) was an American law enforcement officer who worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1942 to 1973 and was known for his role in the Watergate scandal. Felt wa ...

, their well-placed source, " Deep Throat," in reference to the pornographic film of the same name. :"When the time came, it was managing editor Howard Simons--not Ben Bradlee or other ranking editors--who made the crucial early decisions that led to the ''Washington Post''s extraordinary coverage of the Watergate scandal, especially the decision to allow the metropolitan staff, which did not normally report on national politics, to pursue the story." :'' The Great Cover-Up'' by

, page 66. Simons was portrayed by

Martin Balsam Martin Henry Balsam (November 4, 1919 – February 13, 1996) was an American actor. He had a prolific career in character roles in film, in theatre, and on television. An early member of the Actors Studio, he began his career on the New Yo ...

in ''All the President's Men'', the 1976 film based on Bernstein and Woodward's 1974 book of the same name, depicting the ''Post'''s investigation of Watergate. He was later played by

David Cross David Cross (born April 4, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, director, and writer known for his stand-up performances, the HBO sketch comedy series '' Mr. Show'' (1995–1998), and his role as Tobias Fünke in the Fox/Netflix si ...

in the 2017 film '' The Post''.

After ''The Washington Post''

Simons left ''The Post'' for a position as Curator at

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University is the primary journalism institution at Harvard. It was founded in February 1938 as the result of a $1.4 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of ' ...

in 1984. Simons authored ''Jewish Times: Voices of the American Jewish Experience,'' (Houghton-Mifflin, 1988), and ''Simons' List Book'' (1977). He edited two books with Joseph A. Califano, Jr., ''The Media and the Law'' and ''The Media and Business,'' and in 1986 wrote a spy novel with Haynes Johnson called ''The Landing.'' A well-known quotation attributed to Simons: :"People who are funny and smart and return phone calls get much better press than people who are just funny and smart." He stepped down from the Nieman position on May 25, 1989, on medical leave, and succumbed to pancreatic cancer three weeks later, aged 60. A scholarship named after him assists minority students aspiring in journalism (se

.

References

* Epstein, Noel. Howard Simons, Ex-Managing Editor of ''Post'' and Nieman Curator, Dies
''Washington Post''
June 14, 1989. * Jones, Alex S. Howard Simons Dies at Age 60, an Ex-Editor at ''Washington Post''. ''New York Times'', June 14, 1989. {{DEFAULTSORT:Simons, Howard 1929 births 1989 deaths Deaths from pancreatic cancer Harvard University staff Writers from Albany, New York Union College (New York) alumni Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni Jewish American journalists 20th-century American Jews