Thomas M. French (born January 3, 1958) is an American writer and journalist.

Personal details

Thomas M. French was born Jan. 3, 1958 to Hans and Katherine (née Darst) French in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

and was raised in

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. While at Indiana University, he was the editor-in-chief of the

Indiana Daily Student The ''Indiana Daily Student'' (''IDS'') is an independent, student-run newspaper that has been published for the community of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, since 1867. The ''IDS'' is free and distributed throughout the campus and ci ...

, the recipient of a Poynter scholarship, the winner of the Hearst Competition for Feature Writing, and graduated in 1980. His first marriage was to Linda French (née Rogowski). French has two sons, Nathaniel and Samuel. He married Kelley Benham in 2006. Benham documented the birth of their daughter Juniper, who was born an extreme preemie in the series "Never Let Go," published in the Tampa Bay Times, for which she was a finalist for the 2013

Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing The Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Journalism. It has been awarded since 1979 for a distinguished example of feature writing giving prime consideration to high liter ...

Career

Thomas French's career with the ''St. Petersburg Times'' spanned 27 years between 1981 and 2008. He is known for feature writing but he started off on the police and courts beats, as well as general assignments. He is the Riley Endowed Chair in journalism in the Media School at Indiana University.

Notable works of journalism

In 1998, the ''Times'' won its sixth

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

. French won for Feature Writing for his piece “Angels and Demons,” the story of the murders of Jo, Michelle and Christe Rogers and the eventual capture of the murderer, Oba Chandler. French wrote the series "South of Heaven," later expanded into a book of narrative nonfiction, about students at the end of the 1980s at Largo High School with the cooperation of LHS journalism teacher Jan Amburgy. He collaborated on "13", a mini-series that ran in the ''St. Petersburg Times'' about middle schoolers at Booker T. Washington Middle Magnet School for International Studies in Tampa. His piece "The Exorcist in Love" is an in-depth investigation into the life and work of Laura Knight (now Laura Knight-Jadczyk). According to ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' reporter

Anne Hull Anne Hull (born June 8, 1961) is an American journalist and writer. She was a national correspondent for the Washington Post for nearly two decades, writing about immigration, minimum wage workers, the Bible Belt and U.S. soldiers coming home fro ...

, French's work has set the standard for a generation of reporters:

He wrote a seminal piece of journalism called 'A Cry In The Night' that dominated our craft for a long time and made a model for the rest of us to follow," Hull said. "He's been my teacher since the day I met him. IU will soon get a glimpse of his passion and ferocious belief that journalism should be fair and truthful but also raucous, subversive, emotional and daring.

His 2010 book about

Lowry Park Zoo ZooTampa at Lowry Park (formerly known as Lowry Park Zoo or Lowry Park Zoological Garden) is a nonprofit zoo located in Tampa, Florida. In 2009, Lowry Park Zoo was voted the #1 Family Friendly Zoo in the US by Parents Magazine, and is recognized ...

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

is called '' Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives''.

Awards

In 1992, Thomas French won the Livingston Award for Young Journalists for his local reporting on a high school. In 1998, French won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. In 2015, French was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame.

References

''A Year in the Life of a High School''

''Angels & Demons''

''Never Let Go'', written by wife Kelley Benham about the couple's daughter

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:French, Thomas 1958 births Living people Indiana University alumni Journalists from Indiana Writers from Indianapolis Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing winners Tampa Bay Times Writers from Columbus, Ohio Journalists from Ohio American male journalists 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Indiana University faculty Goucher College faculty and staff 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers