Gaylord Dewayne Shaw (July 22, 1942 – September 6, 2015) was an American journalist who won a

Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting This Pulitzer Prize has been awarded since 1942 for a distinguished example of reporting on national affairs in the United States. In its first six years (1942–1947), it was called the Pulitzer Prize for Telegraphic Reporting – National. Li ...

in 1978.

Early life and education

Shaw was born on July 22, 1942, in

El Reno, Oklahoma El Reno is a city in and county seat of Canadian County, Oklahoma, Canadian County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city population was 16,989, marking a change of 1.55% from 16,729, recorded in the ...

. He attended Cameron College from 1960 to 1962 and the

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

from 1962 to 1964.

Journalism career

While in college, Shaw began his journalism career as a police reporter for the '' Constitution-Press'' in Lawton. In 1962, at the age of twenty, he joined the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

bureau. In 1966, he joined the Associated Press's Washington, D.C. office to work as a deskman, and from 1967 to 1971 he was a member of an Associated Press special assignment team focused mainly on investigative reporting. In March 1975, he began working for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' in their Washington bureau. In 1978, he won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for a series of articles he wrote for the ''Los Angeles Times'' about unsafe

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

s across the United States. He has also been credited with breaking the news that President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

was going to resign. He earned the 1980 Gerald Loeb Award for Large Newspapers for coverage of the U.S. energy crisis. In 1988, he joined Newsday as their Washington bureau chief, where he oversaw a Pulitzer Prize-winning story about the

Persian Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

in 1991. In 1997, he was part of a large team of reporters that won another Pulitzer Prize for a story about the crash of

TWA Flight 800 Trans World Airlines Flight 800 (TWA800) was a Boeing 747-100 that exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York, on July 17, 1996, at about 8:31pm. EDT, 12 minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy Internationa ...

, for spot news reporting. He retired in 2002.

Death

Shaw died on September 6, 2015, in

Duncan, Oklahoma Duncan is a city and county seat of Stephens County, Oklahoma, United States. Its population was 22,310 at the 2020 census. Its main claim to fame is as the birthplace of the Halliburton Corporation. Erle P. Halliburton established the New Meth ...

; his family members suspect he died from a heart attack.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Gaylord 1942 births 2015 deaths Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting winners Journalists from Oklahoma People from El Reno, Oklahoma Cameron University alumni University of Oklahoma alumni Los Angeles Times people Neurological disease deaths in Oklahoma Deaths from multiple sclerosis Associated Press reporters Gerald Loeb Award winners for Large Newspapers