News Organizations and Titles: 15 years with the Journal of Commerce: editor emeritus, 1987-96; editor, 1981-87; chief editorial writer, 1978-81; editor of all publications, The Bond Buyer, 1972-78; banking reporter, assistant financial editor and columnist, The New York Times, 1956-72; Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, 1954-55; reporter, Providence Journal and Bulletin, 1947-about 1954; newswriter for a New Bedford, Mass., radio station.
Legacy: Mr. Kraus provided great leadership to his staffs and inspired many young reporters, including Joseph Lelyveld, who went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for The New York Times and is now the paper's editor.
Personal: Born 1921; died March 29, 1996, in Westfield, N.J.
Family: Married to Patricia; three daughters and a son.
Awards:Elliott V. Bell Award, 1987.
Education: Queens College, New York, B.A. in history; Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, M.S.
What he has said about himself: What he has said about himself: "My most important assignment at the Times was running the Sunday financial section. I had a bit of a formula. I tried to get a mix that was both current news and some of the sociology of business."
"I think the great business reporting in this country, by and large, occurs in market letters--banking letters and economic letters."
What others have said about him: Keith M. Rockwell, Journal of Commerce: "Mentor is a term seldom used today, perhaps because the frantic pace of life does not afford time to educate younger colleagues. But mentoring was management for Al Kraus. If he pushed his reporters--types, he called them--it was because he wanted them to learn. Forever prodding, always instructing, he kept careful watch over his charges, particularly his younger staff."