Stony Brook professorship named for biz journalism legend Marshall Loeb

The family of legendary business journalist Marshall Loeb has funded a professorship in his name at the Stony Brook University School of Journalism.

Michael and Margaret Loeb, his son and daughter, have funded the Marshall R. Loeb Visiting Professorship in Digital News and Audience Engagement. The Loeb Professorship will be awarded to an outstanding journalist and will engage students and faculty in the practice and power of digital journalism.

A national search is now under way to identify top candidates for the inaugural professorship. In addition to teaching, the Loeb professor will deliver an annual lecture open to the public and act as a bridge between the journalism school and industry to help students stay abreast of emerging trends.

Called by The New York Times, “one of the most influential magazine editors in the magazine industry,” Loeb started his career as a sports reporter at 15. He covered the reconstruction of post-war Germany as a reporter for United Press International, and interviewed many world leaders for Time Inc., including Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher. He led Time magazine’s coverage of the Watergate scandal, created its first “Women of the year” cover, and interviewed every sitting president during his tenure as a magazine editor, including Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

As a managing editor, he made Money the fastest-growing magazine in America and helped Fortune earn more operating profit in eight years than it had in its previous 56 years combined.

Leaving Time Inc. at the mandatory retirement age of 65 did not end Loeb’s contributions to the world of journalism. He became editor of The Columbia Journalism Review, appeared as a daily commentator on CBS Radio Network, wrote a series of books on personal finance, and appeared as an on-screen analyst for Quicken, TurboTax and other software programs.

Loeb, who passed away last December, won every major award in economic and financial journalism and was chosen by a panel of his peers as one of the 100 most important and influential business journalists of the 20^th century. 

“My father is well known for his contribution to personal finance and journalism, but he was also the champion of society’s under-served: women, the economically disadvantaged, and first-generation Americans. Stony Brook well serves these groups and he would be proud to help them now just as he did during his remarkable life,” Michael Loeb said.