Clark R. Mollenhoff (April 16, 1921 – March 2, 1991) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist, an attorney who served as Presidential Special Counsel, and a columnist for ''

The Des Moines Register ''The Des Moines Register'' is the daily morning newspaper of Des Moines, Iowa. History Early period The first newspaper in Des Moines was the ''Iowa Star''. In July 1849, Barlow Granger began the paper in an abandoned log cabin by the junction ...

''.

Life and career

Born in

Burnside, Iowa Burnside is an unincorporated community in Webster County, Iowa, United States. Its elevation is 1,138 feet (347 m). Burnside has a post office with the ZIP code 50521. History Present-day Burnside was laid out as a town named Buchanan ...

on April 16, 1921, to Margaret and Raymond E. Mollenhoff, Clark R. Mollenhoff graduated from

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

Webster City, Iowa Webster City is a city in Hamilton County, Iowa, United States. The population was 7,825 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Hamilton County. Webster City is known as 'Boone River Country', as the Boone River meanders along the east sid ...

. He began working for ''The Des Moines Register'' in 1942 while attending

Drake University Drake University is a private university in Des Moines, Iowa. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, including professional programs in business, law, and pharmacy. Drake's law school is among the 25 oldest in the United States. His ...

law school, from which he graduated in 1944. Mollenhoff then served two years in the U.S. Navy before returning to the ''Register''.Mollenhoff biography
at ''

'' Accessed June 6, 2015 In 1958 Mollenhoff won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, for a series exposing racketeering and fraud in the

Teamsters Union The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), also known as the Teamsters Union, is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of The Team Drivers International Union and The Teamsters National Union, the un ...

. His work led to a successful crack-down on corruption within the Teamsters. In 1959 he received the

Elijah Parish Lovejoy Elijah Parish Lovejoy (November 9, 1802 – November 7, 1837) was an American Presbyterianism, Presbyterian Minister (Christianity), minister, journalist, Editing, newspaper editor, and Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist. Followin ...

Award as well as an honorary

Doctor of Laws A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor ...

degree from

Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philant ...

Eisenhower Fellowships Eisenhower Fellowships is a private, non-profit organization created in 1953 by a group of prominent American citizens to honor President Dwight D. Eisenhower for his contribution to humanity as a soldier, statesman, and world leader. The organiz ...

selected Mollenhoff as a USA Eisenhower Fellow in 1960. In 1965, Mollenhoff published ''Despoilers of Democracy'', which provided details of corruption associated with Senate Majority Leader

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

(before he became president), in particular the Billie Sol Estes swindles and the TFX scandal of 1963, investigation into which was suspended after the assassination of

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

. In 1969 he served for a year as Special Counsel to 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 ...

, after which he became the ''Register''s Washington bureau chief. In 1977 Mollenhoff became a professor at

Washington and Lee University , mottoeng = "Not Unmindful of the Future" , established = , type = Private liberal arts university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.092 billion (2021) , president = William C. Dudley , provost = Lena Hill , city = Lexington ...

in Lexington, Virginia while continuing to write a column for the ''Register''. In 1988 he wrote a biography of

John Vincent Atanasoff John Vincent Atanasoff, , (October 4, 1903 – June 15, 1995) was an American physicist and inventor from mixed Bulgarian-Irish origin, best known for being credited with inventing the first electronic digital computer. Atanasoff invented the ...

, the

Iowa State College Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

professor who invented the first electronic digital computer in 1939. Mollenhoff's book gives the Atanasoff perspective of the 1973 federal court decision of '' Honeywell v. Sperry Rand'' that ruled the

ENIAC ENIAC (; Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, completed in 1945. There were other computers that had these features, but the ENIAC had all of them in one pac ...

computer patent invalid, and drew attention to Atanasoff's work. Mollenhoff wrote twelve books and won many additional awards. While living in Lexington, Virginia, Clark R. Mollenhoff died of cancer on March 2, 1991 at the age of 69. The Clark Mollenhoff Award for Excellence in Investigative Reporting is awarded annually by the Institute on Political Journalism for the best investigative journalism article in a newspaper or magazine.Clark Mollenhoff Award
Accessed June 6, 2015

Books

*''Washington Cover-Up: How Bureaucratic Secrecy Promotes Corruption and Waste in the Federal Government'' (1962), Doubleday. (2007 edition) *''Tentacles of Power: The Story of Jimmy Hoffa'' (1965), World Publishing *''Despoilers of Democracy: The real story of what Washington propagandists, arrogant bureaucrats, mismanagers, influence peddlers, and outright corrupters are doing to our Federal Government'' (1965), Doubleday *''The Pentagon: Politics, Profits and Plunder'' (1967), G.P. Putnam's Sons *''George Romney: Mormon in Politics'' (1968),

Meredith Press Meredith Press was a publishing company based in New York, with a focus on science fiction and general literature. While Already in 1950 they had y published the Better Homes and Gardens Story Book, they were particularly active in the years 1967 ...

*''Strike Force: Organized Crime and the Government'' (1972), Prentice Hall, *''The Man Who Pardoned Nixon'' (1976), The K.S. Giniger Company, Inc., *''Game Plan for Disaster'' (1976), W.W. Norton & Co., *''The President Who Failed: Carter out of Control'' (1980), Free Press, *''Investigative Reporting: From Courthouse to White House'' (1981), Macmillan, * *''Ballad to an Iowa Farmer: and Other Reflections'' (1991), Iowa State University Press

References

External links

American Journalism Review
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mollenhof, Clark 1921 births 1991 deaths People from Webster County, Iowa American male journalists 20th-century American journalists Writers from Des Moines, Iowa Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting winners Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award recipients People from Webster City, Iowa Military personnel from Iowa 20th-century American biographers 20th-century American male writers American male biographers Drake University Law School alumni