Former ASNE president, Wiggins, dies

James Russel Wiggins, whose journalism career spanned 78 years, died Nov. 19 of congestive heart failure. He was 96.

Much of Wiggins’ career was spent at The Washington Post. He became the Post’s managing editor in 1947, became executive editor in 1955 and served as both editor and executive vice president from 1960 to 1968.

Wiggins was president of ASNE from 1959-6o when the society was fighting key battles over Freedom of Information.

In his address to ASNE as president, Wiggins said, “The struggle to maintain the public’s right to know, of course, is not solely a legal fight that is to be won or lost in courts or a legislative fight. It is a struggle for the minds of citizens. ...

“Whether we win or lose will depend in part upon how well presuaded citizens are that our newspapers themselves fulfill their part in giving to readers the information they require.”

Wiggins career began in Luverne, Minn., where he worked for and then bought his hometown Rock County Star.

He took a brief detour as he was about to retire from the Post, when President Lyndon Johnson named him ambassador to the United Nations, a position he held the remaining four months of the Johnson Administration.

In 1966, Wiggins bought the Ellsworth American, a weekly newspaper in Maine. After he retired, he moved to Maine in 1969 and served as editor of the Ellsworth American until recently.

Wiggins was preceded in death by his wife, Mabel Preston, and three children. He is survived by a daughter, Patricia Schroth, 10 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.