William G. Connolly, is a co-author of '' The New York Times style guide'' and a member of the executive committee of the

American Copy Editors Society ACES: The Society for Editing is a professional association of international scope for editors who work on every kind of content (media), content, including newspapers, magazines, websites, books, academic journal, scholarly journals, and corpora ...

Education

Born in

Scranton, Pennsylvania Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 U.S. census, Scranton is the largest city in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Wyoming V ...

, Connolly attended St. Paul's School. He graduated from the

Scranton Preparatory School Scranton Preparatory School is a co-educational Jesuit high school located in Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States. History Scranton Prep opened its doors in 1944. At the request of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton and of Catholic families ...

in 1955 and the

University of Scranton The University of Scranton is a private Jesuit university in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1888 by William O'Hara, the first Bishop of Scranton, as St. Thomas College. In 1938, the college was elevated to university status and took t ...

in 1959. Following his service in the U.S. Army (1959-1962), in 1963 he earned a master's degree from the

Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism s ...

Career

Connolly is a retired newspaper editor and former copy editor who spent most of his career at

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

. He joined the New York Times in 1966, working as a copy editor on the foreign news desk. He later served as copy editor on the New York Times Magazine and assistant real estate editor. In 1975, he joined the national news staff. He retired in 2001. He has also been active in promoting racial and ethnic

diversity Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to: Business *Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce *Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers * ...

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...

and supporting student journalism and mentoring. He is currently a director for the Education Fund where he was also its former president. Throughout his career, he has lectured a number of times at the

American Press Institute The American Press Institute is an educational non-advocacy 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization affiliated with the News Media Alliance (formerly the Newspaper Association of America). The institute's mission is to encourage the advancement of news m ...

. From 1981 - 2001, he taught courses at the Maynard Institute's editing program,

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

, and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. Before working for The Times, Connolly worked for The Minneapolis Tribune,

The Houston Chronicle ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

, and

The Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...

as a reporter and editor. He was the managing editor of

The Virginian-Pilot ''The Virginian-Pilot'' is the daily newspaper for Norfolk, Virginia. Commonly known as ''The Pilot'', it is Virginia's largest daily. It serves the five cities of South Hampton Roads as well as several smaller towns across southeast Virgini ...

from 1979 - 1983. Since being retired, he is pursuing a lifelong interest in attending art school.

Works

Connolly also wrote ''The New York Times Guide to Buying or Building a Home.'' From 1987 - 1989, he wrote "Winners & Sinners," a critique of a paper that was read by journalists, writers, and educators.

References

External links

* http://www.copydesk.org/election/10elex/connolly.php * http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=3139 American copy editors The New York Times editors Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Writers of style guides Detroit Free Press people Houston Chronicle people University of Scranton alumni {{US-journalist-20thC-stub