--- title: Remembering John Carroll, Journalism Legend description: Newspaperman canonical: https://time.com/3926037/remembering-john-carroll-journalism-legend/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-18T11:11:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T08:19:01.777Z article:section: U.S. og:title: Remembering John Carroll, Journalism Legend og:description: Newspaperman og:url: https://time.com/3926037/remembering-john-carroll-journalism-legend/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Remembering John Carroll, Journalism Legend twitter:description: Newspaperman twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Remembering John Carroll, Journalism Legend by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 18, 2015 11:11 AM CUT by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 18, 2015 11:11 AM CUT John S. Carroll, the preeminent newspaper editor of his generation, died June 14 of a rare brain disorder. He was 73\. Better known within his profession than to the public, Carroll loved big, ambitious exposés and the prizes that followed. After working as a reporter in Providence, R.I., and Baltimore, Carroll turned to editing, first at the Philadelphia Inquirer and then as top editor at the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky, the Baltimore Sun and the Los Angeles Times, which won 13 Pulitzers in his five years there. Carroll was a preternatural listener who said he got his best ideas from his reporters and his readers. He was also a purist who believed journalists were obliged only to serve readers. “How long has it been since an editor was so rash as to cite public service in justifying a budget?” he asked shortly after quitting the Times rather than agree to staff cuts he thought would harm the paper. “You might as well ask to be branded with a scarlet N for naive.” –NORMAN PEARLSTINE ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3926037/remembering-john-carroll-journalism-legend/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3926037/remembering-john-carroll-journalism-legend/"},"headline":"Remembering John Carroll, Journalism Legend","datePublished":"2015-06-18T11:11:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:19:01.777Z","description":"Newspaperman","url":"https://time.com/3926037/remembering-john-carroll-journalism-legend/","keywords":["obituary"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/obituary/","name":"obituary"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3926037/remembering-john-carroll-journalism-legend/","name":"Remembering John Carroll, Journalism Legend"}}]}] ```