Illinois Hall of Fame: David Broder

By Mark Rhoads

"Everything that I learned of importance in my life, I learned here in Illinois."  -- David S. Broder in 2005 at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author David Broder is the dean of American political columnists.  His syndicated column appears in thousands of newspapers all over the world and he has been a frequent commentator on television news panels for such programs as Inside Politics, Meet the Press, and Washington Week in Review.

David was born in Chicago Heights, Illinois on Sept. 11, 1929.  His father was a local dentist who got paid sometimes on the barter system during the Depression.  David remembered as a small child going to a farm to pick up large cans of sweet unpasteurized milk that was a payment to his Dad for taking care of a family.  He graduated from Bloom Township High School and met his wife Ann at the University of Illinois.  He received a B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1947 where he was editor of the campus paper, The Chicago Maroon.  He received an M.A. in political science also from the University of Chicago in 1951.

After two years of service in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, Broder worked for the Bloomington Pantagraph from 1953 to 1955.  He told an audience at Southern Illinois University last year, "The debt that I owe the editors and my colleagues that reported for that paper is incalculable. They took somebody who knew absolutely nothing about journalism and taught me how to do a job and introduced me to a different part of the state."

Broder went to work for Congressional Quarterly in 1955 and reported for the old Washington Star from 1960 to 1965.  After a year at The New York Times in 1966, he joined the staff of The Washington Post where he has been for the last forty years.  He won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1973 and numerous other awards including the Sigma Delta Chi Honor Society Hall of Fame.  He was also given an "Outstanding Illinoisan Award" by the Illinois State Society of Washington, DC in 1997.

By Mark Rhoads

"Everything that I learned of importance in my life, I learned here in Illinois."  -- David S. Broder in 2005 at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author David Broder is the dean of American political columnists.  His syndicated column appears in thousands of newspapers all over the world and he has been a frequent commentator on television news panels for such programs as Inside Politics, Meet the Press, and Washington Week in Review.

David was born in Chicago Heights, Illinois on Sept. 11, 1929.  His father was a local dentist who got paid sometimes on the barter system during the Depression.  David remembered as a small child going to a farm to pick up large cans of sweet unpasteurized milk that was a payment to his Dad for taking care of a family.  He graduated from Bloom Township High School and met his wife Ann at the University of Illinois.  He received a B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1947 where he was editor of the campus paper, The Chicago Maroon.  He received an M.A. in political science also from the University of Chicago in 1951.

After two years of service in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, Broder worked for the Bloomington Pantagraph from 1953 to 1955.  He told an audience at Southern Illinois University last year, "The debt that I owe the editors and my colleagues that reported for that paper is incalculable. They took somebody who knew absolutely nothing about journalism and taught me how to do a job and introduced me to a different part of the state."

Broder went to work for Congressional Quarterly in 1955 and reported for the old Washington Star from 1960 to 1965.  After a year at The New York Times in 1966, he joined the staff of The Washington Post where he has been for the last forty years.  He won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1973 and numerous other awards including the Sigma Delta Chi Honor Society Hall of Fame.  He was also given an "Outstanding Illinoisan Award" by the Illinois State Society of Washington, DC in 1997.