Austin Kiplinger dies at 97

Austin Kiplinger, the longtime chairman and editor-in-chief of a financial publishing company that bore his name, has died at the age of 97, reports Ben Nuckols of the Associated Press.

Nuckols writes, “A prominent figure in Washington journalism and civic life, Kiplinger led the publishing company founded by his father for nearly 35 years. Before taking over Kiplinger Washington Editors Inc., he worked as a newspaper, radio and television reporter. The company publishes newsletters and magazines on personal finance and business.

“The company was founded in 1920 by his father, W.M. Kiplinger. Austin Kiplinger took it over upon his father’s death in 1967. Even after circumstances forced him to become a businessman, he remained a journalist at heart, his son said.

“‘He wrote, he edited, he conducted the weekly lead meetings for the Kiplinger Letter,’ Knight Kiplinger, who took over for his father in the 1990s, said Saturday. ‘That’s our tradition going back to our founding.’

“Kiplinger’s professional journalism career began at age 18 while a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. He worked as the campus stringer for the Ithaca Journal, and some of his articles were picked up by The Associated Press.”

Read more here. And here is a link to a 2009 interview with Talking Biz News.