Carroll Kilpatrick

Despite having one of the most visible and demanding jobs in journalism of covering the White House for The Washington Post, Carroll Kilpatrick is remembered for his kindness, courtesy, and willingness to lend a helping hand to young reporters.

Born in Montgomery in 1913, Kilpatrick attended The University of Alabama and became a favorite student of journalism professor Clarence Cason, who selected him to be editor of The Crimson White, the school newspaper.

Kilpatrick worked as a reporter for two Birmingham dailies and then served as associate editor of the Montgomery Advertiser under the supervision of renowned editor Grover Hall. Following a Nieman fellowship at Harvard, Kilpatrick established a Washington bureau that provided stories for newspapers in Birmingham, Chicago, and San Francisco.

In 1952 he joined The Washington Post where he reported until his retirement in 1975. He covered President Nixon's denials following the Watergate break-in and then wrote the lead story when Nixon resigned. One of the most widely respected political reporters in Washington, he is also the author of numerous books on politics.

Kilpatrick won the Merriman Smith Award for White House coverage in 1972 and was president of the Overseas Writers of Washington and of the White House Correspondents Association.

"His sources knew him as a thorough, fair-minded, reliable, unruffled journalist who did not play favorites or causes and could not be spun," the Post's editorial page said the day after he died.
Katharine Graham, chairman of the Washington Post Co., said of Kilpatrick that he was "gentle, fair, tough-minded, and skeptical but never lost his own sense of modest perspective, gentle humor, and consideration for others."