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The Shedd Institute
www.theshedd.org - 541.434.7000
Fierce defender of journalists and their craft
Steve Earle
F
red Taylor finished Washington High School and left his native Portland in 1946
to major in journalism at the University of Oregon. He worked in the news bureau
and wrote for the Oregon Daily Emerald, rising to be co-sports editor.
But the dean of the journalism school told him that he would never make it in
the field of journalism. He should get out of it.
Fred ignored him. That harsh advice to a college kid may have been just what G.
Frederick Taylor needed to drive him into becoming what many colleagues have called
“the best newsman in America” in his time.
Fred Taylor died Aug. 10 in Coos Bay, where he and his wife of 63 years, Georga Bray
Taylor, a playwright and intellectual partner, built their retirement home overlooking the
Pacific. He leaves Georga, son Ross of McKinleyville, California, and daughter Amelia of
Portland and four grandchildren. Fred Taylor was one of three owners of the Eugene
Weekly.
Coos Bay was a long way from New York City and The Wall Street Journal, where his
career spanned 33 years from copy editor to managing editor and executive editor. Some
of those years were spent in bureaus in Detroit, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
Although he had many opportunities to leave the WSJ, he never did, in spite of his
profound differences with the editorial page. He managed 300 reporters at one time,
greatly increased circulation, started in-depth coverage of labor and unions, the law and
lawyers, and other areas, building his reputation for integrity and for “fiercely defending
journalists and their craft,” as some obituaries have put it.
Early in retirement, Fred served on the Pulitzer Prize biography committee, evaluating
as many as 80 biographies that were hauled to his door on the Oregon Coast. But he loved
“newspapering,” as he put it, soon buying the North Bend News and Coquille Valley
Sentinel, divesting of them, and then in 1991, finally buying into a different kind of news-
paper: What’s Happening, which became the Eugene Weekly.
He and Georga drove to Eugene for EW board meetings and staff parties, even hot dogs
and beans at Eugene Emeralds games, first at Civic Stadium, which both Taylors, sophis-
ticated baseball fans, appreciated.
At one memorable board meeting, after receiving a promotional piece, a condom
emblazoned with Eugene Weekly, Fred wryly noted that this was a long way from the Wall
Street Journal.
He read both the Weekly and The Register-Guard, probably more carefully than the
staffers at either paper. One of his greatest disappointments was the drastic decline of The
Oregonian, once the grand old paper of his beloved Oregon and where he spent two years
as a sports reporter early in his career.
“Terrific” was his highest praise for either an article or an issue of EW. Probably his
most constant instruction was “follow the money.” It was a frustration that EW did not
have the resources to do that in the WSJ style.
When the present UO School of Journalism and Communication set up its Hall of
Achievement in 1998, Fred Taylor was in the first class. His picture hangs in the hallway
of the school.
A great newsman and a great citizen, Fred cared to his core about the importance of a
free press in a democracy, large or small. One of his last directives was: “Don’t sell the
Weekly. Eugene needs it.” ■
& The Dukes
w/ special guests The Mastersons
Wed August 26
Next at The Shedd
Marcia
Ball
541.434.7000 - theshedd.org
Sep 10
The Shedd
presents
Sep 18-Oct 4
8.26 Steve Earle & The Dukes
9.10 Marcia Ball
9.18-10.4 MARY POPPINS!
9.29 Boz Scaggs (Hult Center)
10.9 Wayne Horvitz
10.16 Still Thinking - Good
Dudes & The Rangers
10.20 Dar Williams
10.22-5 ECJK: Goody Goody
10.28 Chico Schwall: Lead
Belly & Odetta
10.31 Moombah! To Beast or
Not To Beast
11.19 Manis/Vick: That’s Him!
12.4-20 WHITE CHRISTMAS
12.10-17 Christmas at The
Shedd: Swinging…
1.7
John Pizzarelli
eugeneweekly.com • A ugust 20, 2015
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