William Edmund Scripps (May 6, 1882 – June 12, 1952) was a pioneer

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

and the publisher of ''

The Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the '' Detroit Tribune'' on Februa ...

''. He was also an original founder of the WWJ radio station.

Biography

He was born on May 6, 1882 to James E. Scripps, the founder of Detroit’s ''Evening News''. His uncle (father's half-brother) Edward W. Scripps, founded the

E.W. Scripps Company The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...

; and his aunt (father's half-sister),

Ellen Browning Scripps Ellen Browning Scripps (October 18, 1836 – August 3, 1932) was an American journalist and philanthropist who was the founding donor of several major institutions in Southern California. She and her half-brother E. W. Scripps created the E. W. ...

, was a noted

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

. He was a great uncle to

Samuel H. Scripps Samuel Henrick Scripps (October 30, 1927 – February 16, 2007) was a patron of the arts, and played a significant role in gaining support and recognition for theatre and dance companies throughout America in the second half of the twentiet ...

. His brother-in-law, George Gough Booth, worked alongside him in the newspaper and radio industry. His nephew (George's son) was

James Scripps Booth James Scripps Booth (May 31, 1888 – September 13, 1954) was an artist and automotive engineer. Biography The eldest of George Gough Booth and Ellen Booth's five children, James was born on May 31, 1888 in Detroit, Michigan. He received his educ ...

, an artist and automotive engineer. Scripps married Nina Amenda Downey and had four children. A one-room schoolhouse on the family property was named for his wife. When his son James Edmund II died of

appendicitis Appendicitis is inflammation of the appendix. Symptoms commonly include right lower abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and decreased appetite. However, approximately 40% of people do not have these typical symptoms. Severe complications of a rup ...

in 1925 at 22, an oil painting was donated to the Detroit Art Museum in his memory by his wife in 1954. The painting is "The Nut Gatherers" by William Adolphe Bourguereau. He died on June 12, 1952, from a respiratory illness.

Estate

In 1916, he began purchasing large tracts of

farmland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bot ...

Lake Orion, Michigan Lake Orion ( ) is a village in the northern outskirts of Metro Detroit in Oakland County, Michigan, United States. The population was 2,973 at the 2010 census. "Lake Orion" can refer to either the village or the much larger Orion Township, of wh ...

with an ambition to raise

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...

and show animals, including

Angus Angus may refer to: Media * ''Angus'' (film), a 1995 film * ''Angus Og'' (comics), in the ''Daily Record'' Places Australia * Angus, New South Wales Canada * Angus, Ontario, a community in Essa, Ontario * East Angus, Quebec Scotland * An ...

cattle, swine,

cows Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

, and

poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, a ...

. The estate, called Wildwood Farms, grew in size to . In the mid-1920s Scripps hired his brother-in-law, architect Clarence E. Day, to build a new home for his family on the northwest quadrant of the property.

Scripps Mansion The Scripps Mansion (originally called Moulton Manor) is a Norman/Tudor Revival style mansion located in Orion Township, Michigan. The buildings and surrounding land are known collectively as the William E. Scripps Estate. Since 1956, the propert ...

, a magnificent

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

and

Tudor style Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

dwelling, was completed in 1927. It has served as a

guest house A guest house (also guesthouse) is a kind of lodging. In some parts of the world (such as the Caribbean), guest houses are a type of inexpensive hotel-like lodging. In others, it is a private home that has been converted for the exclusive use o ...

and retreat center for the

Catholic church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

since the 1950s and is not open to the public, except on scheduled guided tours showcasing the interior design and garden. Many of the European paintings from the estate were later donated to the

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the list of largest art museums, largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation a ...

. William was an active contributor to the DIA, and his father

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

was an original founder of the permanent collection building. After his death in 1952, the farm livestock and equipment was auctioned off, and the land was sold or donated for parkland to Orion Township,

Oakland County Oakland County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is part of the Metro Detroit, metropolitan Detroit area, located northwest of the city. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 Census, its population was 1, ...

, and the state of

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

(

Bald Mountain Recreation Area Bald Mountain State Recreation Area is a state park located near Lake Orion, Michigan off M-24. It consists of some of the most rugged terrain in southeastern Michigan. The recreation area is composed of a North Unit and a South Unit, which are ...

). The farm buildings and employee housing were later developed in the Canterbury Village shopping center. In 2007 the estate was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

Aviation and boating

Scripps was an avid aviator and promoted aviation through his father's newspaper, ''

'', which he helped run from 1929–1952. In 1913, Scripps flew a

Curtis Curtis or Curtiss is a common English given name and surname of Anglo-Norman origin from the Old French ''curteis'' ( Modern French ''courtois'') which derived from the Spanish Cortés (of which Cortez is a variation) and the Portuguese and Ga ...

Model F

flying boat A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...

underneath the original Belle Isle Bridge. Scripps invited

Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( , born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many oth ...

to Lake Orion in 1929, where she successfully tested an experimental

glider Glider may refer to: Aircraft and transport Aircraft * Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight ** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of glidin ...

. In 1904, Scripps helped found the Gold Cup boat racing series on the

Detroit River The Detroit River flows west and south for from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie as a strait in the Great Lakes system. The river divides the metropolitan areas of Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, Windsor, Ontario—an area collectively refe ...

Media

William had a role with the ''News'' after his father's death, although the paper was primarily run by George Gough Booth; William's brother in law. William and his brother John Scripps were original founders of

WWJ (AM) WWJ (950 Hertz, kHz) is a commercial AM radio, AM Radio broadcasting, radio station licensed to serve Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, featuring an all-news radio, all-news format known as "Newsradio 950 WWJ". Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station servi ...

radio in 1920. Worried that radio might interfere with newspaper sales, the Scripps family invested in the new medium. Housed in The Detroit News Building, it began limited broadcasts that same year. During the 1940s, William established the first radio broadcasting of

Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international mutual aid fellowship of alcoholics dedicated to abstinence-based recovery from alcoholism through its spiritually-inclined Twelve Step program. Following its Twelve Traditions, AA is non-professi ...

. The station remained under ''News'' ownership until 1987, when U.S.

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC) regulations mandated a sale to prevent

cross ownership Cross ownership is a method of reinforcing business relationships by owning stock in the companies with which a given company does business. Heavy cross ownership is referred to as circular ownership. The Japanese economy is alleged to be heavily ...

. WWJ is currently broadcasting as a popular all-news format. In 1947 the ''News'' also founded a television station, WWJ TV. That station remains on the air, however it is now known as

WDIV-TV WDIV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with NBC. It serves as the flagship broadcast property of the Graham Media Group subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. WDIV-TV maintains studio faciliti ...

. A new and separate station known as

WWJ-TV WWJ-TV (channel 62) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, owned and operated by the CBS television network. Under common ownership with CW affiliate WKBD-TV under the network's CBS News and Stations group, both station ...

began operations in 1978.

References

External links

* http://tclf.org/landslides/william-e-scripps-estate * http://www.orionhistoricalsociety.org/Scripps%20Area.htm * http://www.michmarkers.com/startup.asp?startpage=S0711.htm
Friends of William Edmund Scripps Estate
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scripps, William Edmund 1882 births 1952 deaths American newspaper publishers (people) Members of the Early Birds of Aviation William Edmund The Detroit News people People from Lake Orion, Michigan