Rago: Incredibly dedicated and exceptionally talented

William Lewis, the CEO of Dow Jones & Co. and the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, sent out the following to the staff on Friday:

Dear Colleague,
I am terribly sorry to share some very sad news about the passing of our colleague, Joseph Rago. Joe joined the Journal’s Editorial Page in 2005 as a Robert Bartley Fellow and was brought on as an Assistant Editorial Features Editor. He was named a member of The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board in 2011.
Joe was an incredibly dedicated and exceptionally talented journalist. His tireless efforts paired with his boundless policy knowledge resulted in a 2011 Pulitzer Prize for his “well crafted, against-the-grain” editorials. He was known to those close to him as the kind of colleague you felt privileged to also have as a friend.
He will be missed by all.
I ask that you join me in keeping Joe and his family in your thoughts. While we grieve, it is also right that we celebrate him and his great work for The Wall Street Journal. We will be honoring him and his work on WSJ.com tonight and in the paper tomorrow.
Best,

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.