Joseph Lenoir Chambers was an American writer, biographer, historian, and Pulitzer prize-winning newspaper editor.
13 Facts About Lenoir Chambers
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Joseph Lenoir Chambers was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on December 26,1891, to father, Joseph Lenoir Chambers Sr.
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Lenoir Chambers attended Woodberry Forest preparatory school, graduating in 1910.
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Lenoir Chambers served as 1st lieutenant, with the 52nd Infantry of the 6th Division, United States Army, and later at Division Headquarters, in the American Expeditionary Forces in France and Germany.
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Lenoir Chambers commanded a combat company in France, for a short time.
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On returning from his military service, Lenoir Chambers served as the director of the University of North Carolina news bureau, until 1921; the position made him responsible for keeping the state's newspapers informed of the activities of the university.
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Lenoir Chambers served as a reporter, city editor, and then associate editor for the Greensboro Daily News, in Greensboro, North Carolina.
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Lenoir Chambers married, Roberta Burwell Strudwick, the papers society editor, in 1928.
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In 1944, Lenoir Chambers became the editor of the papers afternoon edition, the Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch, and after the death of Louis Jaffe, he served as the editor of the Pilot, a difficult promotion for Lenoir Chambers, saying he always thought of his new office as belonging to Jaffe.
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However, Chambers continued in the progressive tradition of his former mentor, pushing for five-years, for Virginia to comply, and integrate the state's public schools after the 1954 Brown v Board of Education courts decision.
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Lenoir Chambers was a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the National Conference of Editorial Writers.
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Lenoir Chambers continued to stay involved in historical and civic activities, after retirement.
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Lenoir Chambers was a trustee of Woodberry Forest, Norfolk Academy and the Norfolk Public Library, and was a member of the Virginia Historical Society.