Gordon Englehart

1987

By Al Spiers

Lifelong reporter par excellence and 25 year chief of the Louisville Courier-Journal’s Indiana bureau.

After receiving his A.B. degree from Indiana University in 1942, Englehart went on to serve for 43 months as a combat infantryman in the United States Army emerging as a First Lieutenant with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.
In his early post-war years at the Courier-Journal, served a good journalistic apprenticeship -reporter, night city editor, assistant city editor, a year at the Washington bureau and another year as a national correspondent.

In 1960 he found his niche – Indiana bureau chief – and there he stayed until retirement in 1984, acquiring enormous personal and professional respect and a string of impressive recognitions.

Some of Englehart’s awards and recognitions include: Indianapolis Press Club award for “consistently outstanding reporting and writing” in 1968; the John Hancock award for “excellence in business and financial journalism” as a part of a five-member team in 1978; the Hortense Meyers Award “for a distinguished career in journalism”; and four Sagamore-of-the-Wabash appointments.

Similar political and professional recognitions include: Honorary Secretary of State by Ed Simcox; Honorary House Speaker by J. Roberts Dailey; a “Gordon Englehart Day” proclaimed by Indianapolis mayor William Hudnut; named Grand Buffalo by the Indianapolis Press Club; appointed to Phoenix Gold Club by the Democratic State Committee; a special commendation by the Republican State Committee; and past president of the Indiana University Journalism Alumni Association.

Few contemporary journalists can match Gordon Englehart’s flawless record of scrupulous objectivity, dedication to truth, hard-nosed insistence on factual accuracy and devotion to the public’s right-to-know.