Jack Fuller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Tribune journalist and former President of Tribune Publishing, has been named to the Board of Directors of MacArthur.
"The decisions that shape the course of MacArthur are made by the members of our Board of Directors," said Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, chair of the Board and the Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education at Harvard University. "We are delighted that Jack Fuller will contribute his wisdom, insight, and sound judgment to the work of the Foundation."
A native of Chicago, Fuller began his career at the Chicago Tribune when he was a 16-year-old high school student. He later served as a Tribune reporter in Chicago and Washington, D.C. As editor of the newspaper's editorial page, he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for his editorials on constitutional issues. In 1989, he became editor of the Chicago Tribune and later was appointed publisher and chief executive officer.
In 1997, Fuller was named President of Tribune Publishing, the newspaper division of the Tribune Company, one of the country's largest media companies, with businesses in broadcasting and publishing. Under Fuller, in 2000, the company executed one of the biggest acquisitions in newspaper history, spending $8 billion to buy Times Mirror Co., adding the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Baltimore Sun, and other newspapers to Tribune Publishing. He joined the Tribune Company Board of Directors in 2001. He retired and left the Board in 2004.
"Chicago is the hometown of the MacArthur Foundation and some of our most important grantmaking is focused here," said Jonathan F. Fanton, president of the Foundation. "Jack Fuller's deep roots in Chicago combined with his interest in our conservation, human rights, and other international programs will make him a valuable member of the Board."
In 1969 and 1970, Fuller was an enlisted man in the U.S. Army, including a year in Vietnam as a correspondent for Pacific Stars and Stripes. He served as a special assistant to U.S. Attorney General Edward Levi in 1975 and 1976.
Fuller is the author of News Values: Ideas for an Information Age and six novels: Convergence, Fragments, Mass, Our Fathers' Shadows, Legends' End, and The Best of Jackson Payne.
His undergraduate degree is from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and he has a law degree from the Yale Law School. Fuller is a Trustee of the University of Chicago and The Field Museum and a member of the board of the Inter-American Press Association. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Fuller is the fourth new member of the MacArthur Board named this year. The others are:
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Donald R. Hopkins, M.D., M.P.H., a resident of Chicago, is associate executive director for health programs at The Carter Center, a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization based in Atlanta, GA. He is responsible for leading public health efforts such as the Center's worldwide Guinea worm eradication initiative and its efforts to fight river blindness and trachoma in Africa and Latin America. Formerly, he served for 20 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is the author of The Greatest Killer: Smallpox in History.
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Will Miller, chairman and chief executive officer of Irwin Financial Corporation of Columbus, Indiana, an interrelated group of financial services companies serving consumers and small businesses across the United States and Canada.
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Marjorie M. Scardino, chief executive officer of Pearson, an international education and media group headquartered in London, England, whose primary business operations include The Financial Times Group, Penguin Pearson Education, and half interest in The Economist Group. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 1984 while publisher, with her husband, of a weekly newspaper in Alabama. Formerly, she was Chief Executive Officer of The Economist Group.