Greg Dawson (1950
) is an American columnist and author. Dawson has been in journalism for more than 50 years; he has worked as a reporter, a television critic, metro columnist, and consumer columnist.
His column, titled "The Last Resort," published in the ''
Orlando Sentinel
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company.
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...
,'' answers questions trying to help companies and consumers resolve conflicts. Dawson, uses a humorous and sarcastic tone while answering consumer questions.
In 2009 he published his first book, ''Hiding in the Spotlight: A Musical Prodigy's Story of Survival, 1941-1946''.
Dawson was born in
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County, Indiana, Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the List of municipalities in Indiana, seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside ...
. He is married to Candy C. Dawson, and they have a son and a daughter.
Biography
Dawson, a native of Bloomington, attended Bloomington high school. After graduation, he attended the
Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana.
Campuses
Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI.
*Indiana Universit ...
in Bloomington, but left a few semesters short of graduation; he had a job with the ''Daily Herald-Telephone'', which was his first job in journalism.
He and his wife, Candy, wrote a book, "Busted in Bloomington: A Tragedy in the Summer of '68," that described how the 60s was not a time of liberation, as many people believe. The story focused on a high school English teacher, who was forced to keep his sexual identity hidden, because being gay at the time was seen as ''taboo''.
Dawson has worked as a reporter, television critic and columnist at newspapers in Indiana (Herald-Telephone ''and
The Indianapolis Star
''The Indianapolis Star'' (also known as ''IndyStar'') is a morning daily newspaper that began publishing on June 6, 1903, in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It has been the only major daily paper in the city since 1999, when the ''Indianap ...
),'' North Dakota (''
Grand Forks Herald
The ''Grand Forks Herald'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, established in 1879, published in Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States. It is the primary daily paper for northeast North Dakota and northwest Minnesota. Its average daily circulat ...
''), Massachusetts (''
Boston Herald
The ''Boston Herald'' is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Pulit ...
''), Kansas (
''Wichata Eagle''), and Florida (''
Boca Raton News
The ''Boca Raton News'', owned by the South Florida Media Company, was the local community newspaper of Boca Raton, Florida. The paper began publication December 2, 1955, with a startup circulation of 1200, published by Robert and Lora Britt, and ...
''), during his 50 years in journalism.
Dawson originally started with the ''Orlando Sentinel'' in 1986 as a TV critic and became a local and state columnist in 1994. He left in 2000 to the ''Indianapolis Star'', then returned in 2003. His column, titled "The Last Resort," answers questions to help companies and consumers resolve conflicts; often written in a humorous tone.
In 2009 he published his first book, ''Hiding in the Spotlight: A Musical Prodigy's Story of Survival, 1941-1946''.
The book tells the story of his mother,
Zhanna Arshanskaya Dawson Zhanna Arshanskaya ("Janna") Dawson (born Zhanna Arshanskaya in Ukraine, 1 April 1927) is a Russian-American pianist and former faculty member of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University (Bloomington). Dawson came to national prominence in ...
, who as a teenage girl escaped from the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
along with her sister. The rest of their family was murdered. By assuming new identities and playing piano for German soldiers the sisters survived the holocaust and made their way to the United States.
A short documentary, also titled ''Hiding in the Spotlight,'' was written and directed by Dawsons wife, Candy; it was released in April 2010. Dawson narrates the short film; some of the documentary was filmed in
Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Bibliography
* ''Hiding in the Spotlight: A Musical Prodigy's Story of Survival, 1941-1946'', Pegasus Books, 2009 A French edition was published in 2010, as well as an Italian edition, ''La pianista bambina'' (The child pianist), Piemme Editors, 2010. Another edition was released in
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
.
* ''Judgement Before Nuremberg: The Holocaust in the Ukraine and the First Nazi War Crimes Trial'', Simon and Schuster, 2013
* ''Busted in Bloomington: A Tragedy in the Summer of '68'', by Greg and Candy Dawson, Dog Ear Publishing, 2017
References
External links
Greg Dawsons ColumnCranky advocate returns
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawson, Greg
1950 births
Living people
Jewish American journalists
American columnists
Orlando Sentinel people
The Indianapolis Star people
20th-century American journalists
American male journalists
21st-century American Jews