Pulitzer Prize winner Tom French retiring from the St. Petersburg Times

  I first heard about this a while ago, and now that he's announced it publicly, I can put this sad news on the blog: Tom French, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and longtime inspiration back here in the features department, is taking the newspaper's enhanced retirement package.

Tom, who shares Hoosier roots with me, got a call from Indiana University offering a teaching gig -- actually, an endowed chair in their journalism department -- and so, after some soul searching, he's decided to take that position, leaving at the end of August.

He joins a list of about 40 people leaving the Times newsroom since the retirement incentive was announced (some in that tally are leaving for non-retirement reasons); 200 people across the company have taken it, overall.

Hired at the Times in 1981, Tom helped redefine narrative journalism in the '80s and '90s, exemplified in his Pulitzer winning 1998 series Angels & Demons, the shattering tale of the murder of a mother and her two children while on vacation here from Ohio, the toll their death took on the surviving husband and the search for the killer. Tom's always written as if he were composing books for the newspaper, offering intensely readable, fact-filled excursions into sprawling, true-life tales. And the work of many narrative aces here at the St. Petersburg Times -- Lane DeGregory and Ben Montgomery, for example -- seems descended from his pioneering touch.

A sample, from Angels & Demons:

"They were on their way to the Magic Kingdom. 

"The highways were filled with them. Couples in subcompacts, debating the wisdom of stopping at Stuckey's for a pecan log. Tour groups in tour buses, fleecing their companions at gin rummy and keeping an eye on their driver in case he nodded off. Myriad configurations of moms and dads and stepmoms and stepdads and napping toddlers and whining third-graders and sprawling teenagers in full sulk and mothers-in-law with pursed lips and embittered outlooks, all struggling for peaceful coexistence inside the air-conditioned confines of their minivans.

"They were pilgrims, embarked on the same passage so many millions had made before. From every corner of the country they came, descending through the lengths of Alabama and Georgia until at last they reached the threshold of their destination."

Tom will be the second Pulitzer winner we lose this year, following editorial board member Jack Reed's decision to take the retirement package as well. There is little doubt the Times will be forever changed.

Good luck, pal.

Comments

[sadfd asdfadsf]

who's tom french?

[Ben]

Lock Bull - Here's the book (same title): http://www.amazon.com/South-Heaven-Welcome-School-Century/dp/0671898019/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219864218&sr=1-7

[The Internet]

Pssst. Hey we're open here.

[Gregory A. Perez]

Congrats Tom! I think I've probably told you this in the past, but you were a huge influence on me and on how I look at writing from when I was a wee lad at Writer's Camp and all through my high school years. I'm glad you get to continue sharing all your experience with new students. Good luck and best wishes!

[LockBull]

Best of luck, Tom, I've spent many hours over the past 15-20 years enjoying your work.

BTW - What's the name of the book that sprang from "South of Heaven"?

[Windi Bell-Glogowski]

Good luck Tom in your new position. You were such an inspiration to me years ago when you worked as advisor to the student newspaper staff of Pinellas Park High School. Because of you, I re-write everything!! Best wishes on the exciting new chapter in your life.

[Incredible Shrinking Newspaper Industry]

IU still offers a journalism major?

Will Tom French tell his students the truth about journalism - that the jobs are evaporating more quickly than the journalism classes are filling up?

[Susi]

So happy for you Tom, and so happy for
us here in Bloomington. Tad would have been so proud of you and happy you are returning to your Hoosier roots. Can't wait for Luke to learn how to write from his Uncle Tom. Congratulations!

[Jeff]

This is excellent news for IU, and I'm enrolling Jake there immediately. Also, many Bruce shows in the Midwest will now be within a convenient drive. Congrats!

[Holmes]

Congrats, Tom. I might have to re-enroll at Ernie Pyle Hall to soak up some of your teachings!

[Tyson]

Congrats Tom on your incredible success at the Times. The IU J-school should be thrilled to have you!

[Ben]

That's bad news for the Times, and the readers in Tampa Bay, but great news for the students in Bloomington. Congratulations on the new gig Tom!

[Sherrie]

I'm very disappointed to hear this, I've always enjoyed reading his serial articles in the paper. The indepth looks he offered into other lives were unforgettable. My favorite by far was "South of Heaven", and I went on to read the book that sprang from the series. I'm also a former Hoosier, so if nothing else I'm glad to hear that he's going to such a fine institution as IU.