# robert c maynard biography of michael
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It went into remission twice but returned a third time in 1992.
The man who had written, “The country’s greatest achievements came about because somebody believed in something, whether it was in a steam engine, an airplane or a space shuttle.
When you went through a Bob Maynard-run program, as I did at Columbia in 1974, you came out feeling that nothing was going to stop you.”
But the program almost died that year. For two years the program was housed at Columbia University.
Graduate Milton Coleman, assistant managing editor of the Washington Post, said of Maynard, “He had a commitment to find ways to get stronger black, Asian-American and Latino representation into newsrooms and to give them the armor to survive.
But he does not get the plaudits he deserves for business acumen. As he presented the award in 1991, Colby president William R. Cotter said, “You have rallied employees in the face of uncertainty and citizens in the aftermath of disaster, fighting for the heart and soul of your adopted community the way Elijah Parish Lovejoy once did in his, with faith, nerve and a printing press.”
Maynard received an honorary degree in 1984 from York College in York, the Pennsylvania town where he began his journalism career.
Another highlight of his career was when The Oakland Tribune won the Pulitzer Prize for its photography of the Loma Prieta earthquake damage.
But time was running out for Maynard.
But Maynard had a career full of firsts, from being the first African American national newspaper correspondent to being the first African American newspaper editor in chief. He is widely recognized for turning around the then struggling newspaper and transforming it into a 1990 Pulitzer Prize winning journal.
After a decade of ownership by Bob and Nancy Maynard, the newspaper had won hundreds of awards for editorial excellence.
The Maynard Institute annually conducts the five-week Management Training Center at Northwestern University's J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and the five-week Editing Program at the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. The national honor is named for the owner of an abolitionist newspaper in Alton, III., who was killed by a pro-slavery mob in 1837.
It is doubtful that The Oakland Tribune would be alive today if not for Bob’s keen ability to maneuver through economic minefields day after day, year after year.”
The Life and Legacy of Robert C. Maynard
KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station
By John L. Hanson Jr.
February 18, 2025 at 12:31 PM CST
On this edition of In Black America, producer/host John L.
Hanson Jr. presents a 1985 conversation with the late Robert C. Maynard, journalist, newspaper publisher, editor and former owner of the Oakland (CA) Tribune newspaper. He is widely recognized for turning around the then-struggling newspaper and transforming it into a 1990 Pulitzer Prize-winning journal.
Maynard greatly valued community involvement.
Robert C. Maynard
Oakland Tribune
1937-1993
Robert C. Maynard epitomizes the American dream.
The son of immigrants from Barbados and a high-school dropout at 16, he rose to national and state prominence in the field to which he devoted his life.
After his death on Aug. 17, 1993, he was eulogized at memorial services on both coasts.
MIJE's History Project documents and preserves an untold era of American journalism by chronicling the contributions of a generation of black journalists who changed mainstream news coverage. Reversals and tough times inspire some people to work harder for what they believe in” had finally reached the unbeatable adversary.
“The press, in telling the story, focused primarily on the new owner’s race. Maynard wielded the outreach of his newspaper to better the community by pushing for improved schools, trauma care centers, and economic development.
Robert Maynard was a board member of the industry's most prestigious organizations, including the Pulitzer Prize, The Associated Press, and the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
For more than thirty years, the Institute has trained over 1,000 journalists and editors from multicultural backgrounds across the United States.
Robert C. Maynard, a charismatic leader who changed the face of American journalism, built a four decade career on the cornerstones of editorial integrity, community involvement, improved education and the importance of the family.
His daughter, Dori J. Maynard, has since become President and CEO of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.
In 1976, the program found that home at the University of California, Berkeley and much-needed financial assistance from the Gannett Foundation.
He had developed prostate cancer in 1988. He set out to train young journalists, those who had been locked out because they were not white.”
Maynard and Caldwell brought together working journalists from the nation’s leading news organizations to teach writing and reporting skills at the summer workshop. In 1965, he received a Nieman Fellowship to Harvard University and joined the editorial staff of the Washington Post the following year.
In 1979, Maynard took over as editor of The Oakland Tribune and became the first African American to own a major metropolitan newspaper after purchasing the paper four years later.
Maynard was a charismatic leader who changed the face of American journalism, built a four-decade career on the cornerstones of editorial integrity, community involvement, improved education and the importance of the family.