Hobart Rowen
Mr. Rowen's son, Daniel, and his wife, Alice.
News organizations and titles: 29 years at The Washington Post--columnist, "Economic Impact," 1975-95; financial editor, 1966-75; syndicated columnist, Newsweek, 1960; Washington correspondent and Business Trends editor, Newsweek, during 1960s and possibly before; worker, information division of the War Production Board, during World War II; copy boy, reporter and Washington correspondent, New York Journal of Commerce, 1938-41.
Legacy: Mr. Rowen wrote about the economic policies of presidents from Roosevelt to Clinton and expanded the scope of newspaper business pages, in the words of colleagues, from local news to the world economy.
Personal: Born 1919 in Burlington, Vt.; died April 13, 1995, in Washington, D.C.
Family: Married 53 years to Alice Stadler Rowen; they had one daughter, Judith Vereker of London, and two sons, James, of Milwaukee, and Daniel of New York.
Books: "The Free Enterprisers: Kennedy, Johnson and the Business Establishment," 1964; "Self-Inflicted Wounds: From LBJ's Guns and Butter to Reagan's Voodoo Economics," 1994.
Awards: Two Gerald Loeb Awards; a John Hancock Award; Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Service Award for Magazine Reporting; named Journalist of the Year by the National Economic Association, 1984; citation by Washington Journalism Review as the "Best Economic Columnist," 1985; recognition by the International Film and TV Festival of New York for a Nightly Business Report commentary, 1990; Loeb Lifetime Achievement Award winner, 1992; Society of Business Editors and Writers Distinguished Achievement Award winner, 1993.
Education: City College of New York, B.S., social science, 1938.
What he has said about himself and his work: About his "Business Trends" column, which began at Newsweek: "We started the column because we didn't have any vehicle for reporting on trends that hadn't yet shaped up into a news story. It was similar to the magazine's 'Periscope' feature and to Kiplinger's newsletter. 'Business Trends' had the distinction of being the only piece of copy in Newsweek that was written in the Washington bureau. It was popular with readers, but our New York editors didn't like having that copy out of their control, so I wasn't surprised when they dropped 'Business Trends' after I left to go to the Post."
About building business coverage for the Post: "The advertising people used to come down to the fifth-floor newsroom and distribute company press releases to the reporters. I had to lay down new rules and let everyone know we were no longer going to be running those releases as if they were news. I spelled out a code of ethics, and once the ad guys began to realize that the old days were over, we started to get some cooperation. But it was all a very slow and painful process."Home run stories or accomplishments: At the Post, he expanded the business department and its coverage to include local, national and international business news.
What he made news or headlines for: He received the first Loeb Lifetime Achievement Award and the first Society of Business Editors and Writers Distinguished Achievement Award.
What others have said about him: David Ignatius, former Washington Post assistant managing editor for business news: "Bart taught a generation of business journalists here and around the country how to cover economic policy in a more sophisticated way." Also from Mr. Ignatius: "Before Bart, economic reporting at most newspapers was an afterthought. Business sections covered powerful local companies and rarely said anything uncomplimentary about them. After Bart, business sections covered local business aggressively. They also covered presidents and treasury secretaries and World Bank presidents--and regularly skewered them for their mistakes."
His son, Daniel Rowen: "He relished his role as critic of the administrations, whomever it was in office." Wall Street Journal columnist Walter Mossberg called Rowen "a giant in the field of economic journalism."