Lowell Mellett - Inducted to The Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame April 27, 2013

Lowell Mellett

Mellett ended his journalism career as a nationally syndicated columnist for the Washington Star, ending his "On the Other Hand" column in 1956 because of ill health; Mellett died on April 6, 1960. Upon Mellett's death J. Russell Wiggins, executive editor of the Washington Post, called him "one of the greatest newspapermen of the country and of Washington. He was a gifted writer and a brilliant editor whose work will long be remembered in his profession."

The late Lowell Mellett, an Elwood native who was a newspaper executive in Washington before becoming a top aide to President Franklin Roosevelt. Mellett’s journalism career started at age 16 when the The Muncie Star sent him to cover the 1900 Democratic National Convention. He worked at several newspapers around the country and overseas during World War I before becoming editor of Collier’s Weekly and, later, editor of the Washington Daily News in the 1930s. He held several posts in the Roosevelt administration before leaving government in 1944 to start writing what became a nationally syndicated newspaper column that continued until his retirement in 1956. He died in 1960.

Bust of Lowell Mellett, 1937
Jo Davidson, American (1883-1952) Terracotta

Full document of Lowell Mellett

President Warren G. Harding presents The McLean Cup to Lowell Mellett, editor of the Washington Daily News, 1922 winner of the Washington Newspaper Golf Club tournament held at the Washington Golf and Country Club June 22nd.

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