Joseph Rago (January 6, 1983 – July 20, 2017) was 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 American political writer, best known for his work at ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

''.

Education

Rago attended Falmouth High School in Falmouth,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, where he was president of the

National Honor Society The National Honor Society (NHS) is one of the oldest, largest, and most widely recognized cocurricular student organizations in American high schools, with 1.4 million members. The purpose of the NHS is to create enthusiasm for scholarship, to ...

. He graduated in 2001. Rago graduated with a degree in

American history The history of the present-day United States began in roughly 15,000 BC with the arrival of Peopling of the Americas, the first people in the Americas. In the late 15th century, European colonization of the Americas, European colonization beg ...

from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

in 2005. While there, he wrote for '' The Dartmouth Review'', an independent conservative student newspaper, serving as its editor-in-chief in 2005, and on its board after his graduation. He was also a member of Phi Delta Alpha fraternity.

Career

Rago joined ''The Wall Street Journal'' in 2005 as an intern and rose from an assistant editor on the op-ed page to editorial writer to a member of the editorial board. Rago was also a 2010 media fellow at the

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace and formerly The Hoover Institute and Library on War, Revolution, and Peace) is an American public policy think tank which promotes personal and economic ...

. Rago was known for being an outspoken critic of the

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health ...

. In 2011, he captured the

Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing The Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Journalism. It has been awarded since 1917 for distinguished editorial writing, the test of excellence being clearness of style, ...

for what the Pulitzer organization called his "well crafted, against-the-grain editorials challenging the health care reform advocated by President Obama."

Death

In July 2017, Rago was found dead at his

East Village, Manhattan The East Village is a neighborhood on the East Side (Manhattan), East Side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, New York. It is roughly defined as the area east of the Bowery and Third Avenue, between 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street on the ...

apartment; he was 34 years old. In September 2017, New York City's medical examiner office released a statement confirming his cause of death to be

sarcoidosis Sarcoidosis (; also known as Besnier–Boeck–Schaumann disease) is a disease involving abnormal collections of White blood cell, inflammatory cells that form lumps known as granulomata. The disease usually begins in the lungs, skin, or lymph n ...

References

External links

*
''Dartmouth Now''https://tfas.org/programs/joseph-rago-memorial-fellowship-for-excellence-in-journalism/
1983 births 2017 deaths 21st-century American non-fiction writers American columnists American male non-fiction writers American political commentators American political writers Dartmouth College alumni People from Falmouth, Massachusetts Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing winners The Wall Street Journal people Writers from Massachusetts People from the East Village, Manhattan Writers from Manhattan 21st-century American male writers Deaths from sarcoidosis Falmouth High School (Massachusetts) alumni {{DEFAULTSORT:Rago, Joseph