The Press: Grozier

A descendant of the Mayflower who was born in San Francisco Bay died last week in Cambridge, Mass. He added another one to the great group of journalists of yesterday who have left newspaperdom forever.

Edwin Atkins Grozier, son of a sea captain, was born aboard his father’s clipper ship in San Francisco. Before going to college he spent several years before the mast. Following college he served on the staffs of several Boston papers, then became private secretary of a Governor of Massachusetts. From that post he went to another similar one, became private secretary to one of the great examples of aggressive journalism, Joseph Pulitzer.

Under Pulitzer, Grozier advanced to be editor-in-chief of the evening and Sunday editions of The New York World. Then he branched out for himself.

In 1891, he was on a vacation in Boston. He heard theft the Boston Post was nearly bankrupt. It was a challenge. He stepped in and bought the paper. He then had: $100 cash, 3,000 subscribers, a debt of $150,000 and an average net loss of $2,500 a week.

Last week the Post announced the death of the man who had been its editor for 33 years, the man who had led it out of the morass. For several years he had been confined to his home by illness. But even on the very day of his death he wrote two editorials. A few hours later he was dead.