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From The Kentucky Encyclopedia -
George Barry Bingham, Sr., became
president of the company that published the Louisville Courier-Journal
and the Louisville Times at the death of his father, Robert Worth Bingham , in 1937.
Later he also headed WHAS
radio and television stations and Standard Gravure Corp. He was chairman of the
board when the Bingham companies were sold in 1986. His newspapers had won six Pulitzer
prizes.
He was born February 10, 1906, in Louisville. His mother,
Eleanor (Miller) Bingham, died in 1913 after an automobile accident in which he
was involved. He attended schools in Louisville, Asheville,
North Carolina, and Concord, Massachusetts. After graduating magna cum laude
from Harvard in 1928, he traveled and wrote a novel. On June 9, 1931, he
married Mary Clifford
Caperton (Bingham) of Richmond, Virginia. They had five children: George Barry (Bingham), Jr.,
Sarah ("Sallie") Montague
(Bingham), Eleanor Miller, Robert Worth III, and Jonathan Worth.
After working at WHAS radio in 1930,
Bingham became a police reporter for the Louisville Times, then a general
assignment reporter, Washington correspondent, and editorial writer before
holding managerial positions. He went on active duty as a lieutenant in the
U.S. Naval Reserve in May 1941. He was on special assignment in London in 1942
and served as public relations officer for U.S. Naval Forces in Europe until
being transferred to the Pacific theater in 1945. He was present at the
Japanese surrender, and received two Bronze Stars. Bingham traveled to
Germany, Austria, and Trieste in 1946 and again in 1947 at the behest of the
secretary of the army. He was chief of the mission of the Economic Cooperation
Administration to France in 1949 and 1950, when harbors were reopened, dams and
factories constructed, and railroads put back in operation under the Marshall
Plan. He toured Asia with his friend Adlai Stevenson in 1953
and served as cochairman of volunteers in Stevenson's presidential
campaign in 1956.
During Bingham's reign, the
newspapers and radio and television stations championed many causes -- civil
rights, military preparedness, mental health, ethics, and the environment,
while supporting educational and cultural activities in the region. Bingham's
philanthropy included the Crusade for Children, company contributions of 5
percent of pretax earnings, and more than $50 million through the Mary and
Barry Bingham, Sr., Fund.
Bingham was a longstanding
participant in the affairs of Berea College , Harvard
University, the University of
Louisville , Pine Mountain
Settlement School , American Press Institute, American Society of
Newspaper Editors, International Press Institute, Asia Foundation,
English-Speaking Union, National Portrait Gallery, various preservation and
mental health groups, and several presidential commissions. He was an
accomplished speaker, a facile and precise writer. He wrote poetry and was a
devotee of Shakespeare and theater in general.
He received the Algernon Sidney
Sullivan Award from the University of
Kentucky, the William Allen White Award from the University
of Kansas, and the Roger Williams Straus Award from the National
Conference of Christians and Jews, as well as the titles Commander of the
Order of the British Empire and Commandeur de la Legion d'Honneur.
Bingham died on August 15, 1988, and
was buried in Louisville's
Cave Hill Cemetery. His
personal papers were given to the Filson Club.
SAMUEL W.
THOMAS, Entry Author
Selected Sources from UK Libraries:
Bingham, Barry, Samuel W. Thomas, and University Press of Kentucky. Barry Bingham : A Man of His Word. Lexington, Ky.: U of Kentucky, 1993. Print. Kentucky Remembered.
Bingham, Barry. Poems. Cambridge, Mass.]: Priv. Print., 1923. Print.
Tifft, Susan E., and Alex S. Jones. The Patriarch : The Rise and Fall of the Bingham Dynasty. New York: Summit, 1991. Print.
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