“Scotty” was born in 1909 in Clydebank, Scotland. His family immigrated to the United States in 1920 and settled in Dayton. He became an excellent golfer and in 1927 was named Ohio High School Golf Champion.
The Reston family moved to Oakwood in “Scotty’s” senior year and he graduated from that school in 1928.
Reston followed close friend “Fuzzy” Evans (Stivers-1927) to the University of Illinois where he majored in journalism and became the number one player on their golf team, which won the Big Ten in 1932. After graduation from Illinois, “Scotty” was hired by the Springfield Daily News, owned by Governor James Cox, for whom he had carried golf clubs as a teenager.
He left that position to accept a job with Ohio State University as sports publicist. A year later, he moved to Cincinnati to become the Reds press agent. Reston then followed another close friend from Stivers, Milton Caniff, to New York, where he landed a job with the Associated Press. The New York Times took note of his coverage of the “Blitz” and hired him to staff their London Bureau. “Scotty” quickly moved up the ladder to Washington Bureau Chief, Associate editor, Executive editor, Vice president and finally. Director of the New York Times.
During his career he interviewed eight U.S. presidents and many other world leaders. Reston won Pulitzer Prizes for reporting in 1945 and 1957. He wrote Prelude to Victory (1942); The Artillery of the Press (1967); Sketches in the Sand (1967) and a memoir Deadline (1991). He was the recipient of the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award; the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1986 and the Four Freedoms Award in 1991. “Scotty” married his college sweetheart, Sarah, in 1935 and they had three sons: James, Thomas and Richard who have all become quite successful.
Reston retired in 1989 and died six years later at the age of 86. He was quite possibly the most influential journalist of his time.
