Carl W. Ackerman (1890 – 1970)

Ackerman was Columbia’s first Dean of the School of Journalism. But he made his mark as a newspaper reporter who covered World War I and broke the story about the execution of Czar Nicholas and his family. Able to parley his experience into corporate America he did public relations for Eastman Kodak, General Motors, and other large firms. Born in Indiana, he studied at the University of Chicago, but graduated from Earlham College in his home state, and was one of the 12 members of the first class of Columbia’s School of Journalism in 1913. After working for a number of newspapers and United Press, he was recruited by Columbia in 1931 to be the first Dean of the School of Journalism. There he administered the Pulitzer Prizes until his retirement in 1956. He authored a half dozen books, was a co-founder of the American Press Institute, and helped establish schools of journalism in China and several countries in Latin America.