Joplin Globe journalist who rose to become chairman of National Press Foundation, president of American Newspaper Publishers Association, dies

The Joplin Globe, Mo.
·2 min read

Jan. 27—A former Joplin Globe reporter who rose to become chairman of the National Press Foundation and president of the American Newspaper Publishers Association, died recently.

Jerry Warden Friedheim, of Falcons Landing in Sterling, Virginia, and a resident of the Washington, D.C., area since 1962, was 89.

He died Jan. 20.

Friedheim served as general manager and president of the American Newspaper Publishers Association for 16 years. He also was president of the Association's foundation and founder of its journal, Presstime. He served as chairman of both the Washington Journalism Center and the National Press Foundation and as a director of the World Press Freedom Committee.

In 1992, he joined the Freedom Forum Foundation and guided the development of The Newseum in Washington, D.C., according to his obituary, and became its founding executive director. After his retirement in 1999, he served on The Newseum's advisory board.

Friedheim was born Oct. 7, 1934, in Joplin, to Volmer Havens and Billie Alice Friedheim. He was a 1952 graduate of Joplin High School and earned a bachelor of journalism degree in 1956 and a master of arts degree in 1962 from the University of Missouri in Columbia, where he taught journalism in 1961 and 1962. He earned an ROTC commission at the university and served two years on active duty in Germany and 11 years in the U.S. Army reserve as an artillery captain. In his early career, he was a newspaper reporter, photographer and editor for the Neosho Daily News and the Columbia Missourian as well as the Globe, and also worked for the Associated Press.

Friedheim also served as a congressional fellow of the American Political Science Association after receiving an APSA award for distinguished reporting of public affairs for his coverage of the 1962 congressional elections. He then worked as a press secretary, legislative assistant and administrative assistant to former U.S. Rep. Durward G. Hall, R-Mo., and to former U.S. Senator John G. Tower, R-Texas.

In 1969, he was nominated by former president Richard M. Nixon and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate as deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs. He was assistant secretary from 1972 to 1974.