Pulitzer Prize Winners

Matt Bors

Matt Bors was born in Canton on January 29, 1983 and attended McKinley High School. After high school he attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh where he was an editorial cartoonist for the school’s student newspaper. Universal Features made him the youngest syndicated cartoonist in the country when he was just 23. Since then, his work has appeared in the Lost Angeles Times, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications. In 2012, one of his cartoons appeared on the house floor when US Congressman John Larson used it on the Affordable Care Act.

Bors also was an editor and journalist in the field of comics journalism. He traveled to Afghanistan and filed sketches and editorial cartoons that he later expanded to full-length comics published on Cartoon Movement, an online platform for comics journalism from around the world. In 2012 and 2020 he was a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning Finalist.

Charles R. Macauley

Charles Macauley was born in Canton, Ohio in 1871 and attended the public schools here. In 1890 he won an award for best cartoon in the Cleveland Press. He began his journalistic career with the Canton Repository, publishing cartoons in 1893 while he was working at the Hampden Watch Company in Canton. Hired by the Cleveland World he moved to Cleveland publishing cartoons in the Cleveland Press, and in 1894 and 1895 he published several cartoons in the Repository.

Cartoon Publishing

He published cartoons for the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1899, and 1900. In 1904 he moved to New York and published numerous articles for the New York Times, and cartoons for Judge Magazine and for the old Life. That year Macauley published his illustrated novel, Fantasmaland, a work similar to Alice in Wonderland. From 1906 to 1916 he was creating daily political cartoons for the New York World.

Charles R. Macauley Photoplays

He illustrated books for Joseph Conrad and Arthur Conan Doyle. He published another novel, Red Tavern, in 1914. Five years later he created a company, Charles R. Macauley Photoplays, which produced movies. One of his films, When Bearcat Went Dry, is one of the two oldest films surviving, now at the American Film Institute. And in 1929 while working with the Brooklyn Eagle, he cartooned a criticism of the Treaty of Versailles for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1930. He died in November of 1934.

Don Mellett

Don Mellett was born on September 26, 1891, in Elwood, Indiana to a family of which his father and five siblings all became journalists. After graduation from high school, he entered Indiana University where he edited The Daily Student. As an editor, he began a reform campaign to improve the water system of Bloomington and succeeded.

The Akron Press

After a stint with the Indianapolis News, and The National Enquirer, a prohibition newspaper, he moved his family to Akron, serving with the Akron Press. There he met James Cox, former Governor of Ohio and Democratic candidate for President. Cox persuaded him to come to the Canton Daily News.

Assassination

In several articles, he called for reform in education, reform in hospitals, and reform in government. His attacks on underworld activity led to threats upon his life. On July 16, 1926, he was shot while putting his car in the garage. The ensuing reform led to the awarding of the Pulitzer Prize to the Canton Daily News in 1927.

He is honored in the cornerstone of the Canton Daily News Building now housing the Canton Repository. He was entered into the Indiana Journalist Hall of Fame in 1969.

Dale Raymond Wright

Born in Monongahela, Pensylvania Dale moved with his family to Canton and graduated from McKinley High School in 1941. After serving as a Marine in World War II, he returned to the United States and with the G.I. Bill attended Howard University and in 1950 graduated from Ohio State's School of Journalism. After stints as associated editor of Jet Magazine and Ebony Magazine, he pursued graduate courses in communication and business at New York University (NYU), Columbia University and the State University of New York.

New York World Telegram

He wrote for the New York World Telegram ten articles on migrant work which led to reform in New York and New Jersey, and which led to a finalist for the Pulitzer in 1962. The articles were published later in the book, They Harvest Despair: The Migrant Farm Worker.

Dale Wright Associates

He served as director of public relations for Mayor Koch, Senator Javits, and Governor Nelson Rockefeller and while director of his own firm, Dale Wright Associates, he provided support for minority business in New York. He provided leadership for New York Commissions of Abuse Control, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity. Although he did not receive the Pulitzer, he was given Columbia's other prestigious award, the Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award, the Society of the Silurian's Award and the Gentry Award for news writing.