Donald R. Quayle (July 27, 1930 – April 16, 2015) was an American

broadcast journalist Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are broadcast by electronic methods instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. It works on radio (via air, cable, and Internet), television (via air, cable, ...

who was the first president of

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

(NPR), from 1970 to 1973.

Early life and education

Born in

Logan, Utah Logan is a city in Cache County, Utah, United States. The 2020 United States Census, 2020 census recorded the population at 52,778. Logan is the county seat of Cache County and the principal city of the Logan metropolitan area, which includes Ca ...

, Quayle attended

Utah State University Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public university, public land grant colleges, land-grant research university with its main campus in Logan, Utah, United States. Founded in 1888 under the Morrill Land-Grant Acts as Utah's federal ...

, completing his undergraduate work in 1952. He earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

from Utah State and attended

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

for further graduate work.

Career

Quayle managed a radio station at Ohio State and, from 1960 to 1962, WGBH in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. Quayle was named a member of the board of directors of the

Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB; stylized as cpb) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to ...

in 1968. In 1970, he became the first president of NPR. Quayle and Bill Siemering, NPR's first program director, are considered NPR's "parents". In 1976 he was the senior vice president for programming at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In 1979, he became vice president for administration at WETA. He retired in 1989.

Personal life

Quayle was a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

. On May 7, 2010, Quayle received an honorary doctorate of humane letters degree from Utah State University in recognition of his long career of significant contributions to public broadcasting in the United States. He died in 2015, aged 84.

External links

Donald Quayle collection
at the

University of Maryland Libraries The University of Maryland Libraries is the largest university library system in the Washington D.C.–Baltimore area. The system includes eight libraries: six are located on the University of Maryland, College Park, College Park campus, while ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quayle, Don NPR personalities 1930 births 2015 deaths People from Logan, Utah Utah State University alumni American nonprofit chief executives Latter Day Saints from Washington, D.C. American radio journalists