[Swprograms] VOA's Henry Loomis Passes

[John Figliozzi <jfiglio1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My Comment:  "Extended the reach and defended the independence of the  
VOA."  His more recent successors have done the  
opposite...diligently.  Rest in peace, Director Loomis.

John Figliozzi
Halfmoon, NY
---------------------------------


From The New York Times:
November 14, 2008

Henry Loomis, Who Led Voice of America, Is Dead at 89

By WILLIAM GRIMES
Henry Loomis, who extended the reach and defended the independence of  
the Voice of America as its director in the late 1950s and early  
1960s before resigning in a clash with President Lyndon B. Johnson,  
died on Nov. 2 in Jacksonville, Fla., where he lived. He was 89.

The cause was complications of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Pick’s  
diseases, said his wife, Jacqueline.

Mr. Loomis was also president of the Corporation for Public  
Broadcasting in the 1970s.

A physicist by training, Mr. Loomis became director of the Voice of  
America in 1958, under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Determined to  
expand its operations, he increased the Voice of America’s  
broadcasting power and set up transmitters in previously unserved  
countries like Liberia and the Philippines.

Convinced that English was becoming the pre-eminent international  
language, he began broadcasting programs for less-than-fluent foreign  
listeners in Special English, a simplified language that relied on a  
core vocabulary of 1,500 words. Scripts were read at a deliberate  
pace of nine lines a minute.

Mr. Loomis was still in the post in 1965 when the Voice of America  
came under increasing pressure from the White House not to report  
awkward foreign-policy news, notably the growing military involvement  
of the United States in Southeast Asia. Mr. Loomis resigned, and in  
an accusatory farewell speech said, “The Voice of America is not the  
voice of the administration.”

Henry Loomis was born in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. His father, Alfred,  
amassed a vast fortune financing public utilities. After the Wall  
Street crash of 1929, which left him untouched, Alfred Loomis  
indulged his fascination with science by setting up a physics  
laboratory in an old mansion in Tuxedo Park. Henry worked with his  
father on brain-wave research while still a teenager, and later took  
part in the laboratory’s pioneering research on radar.

Mr. Loomis left Harvard in his senior year to join the Navy, which  
assigned him to the staff of the commander in chief of the Pacific  
Fleet in Pearl Harbor. He created radar training schools and  
accompanied airplane pilots and ships’ officers to demonstrate how to  
use the new technology, which was initially regarded with some  
suspicion.

After leaving the Navy with the rank of lieutenant commander and a  
Bronze Star, Mr. Loomis did graduate work in physics at the  
University of California, Berkeley, and spent four years as assistant  
to the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before  
taking a series of government jobs relating to science and technology.

In 1972 President Richard M. Nixon appointed Mr. Loomis to be  
president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the nonprofit  
organization created by Congress to be responsible for channeling  
money to public television stations. In an effort to decentralize  
public television, he set about wresting control over programming and  
production from the Public Broadcasting Service, the network that  
distributes programs to local stations. He also redirected money to  
local stations rather than national programming.

Friction between the two bodies was never resolved. Mr. Loomis left  
the job in 1978, as the Carter administration began restoring power  
to PBS. He returned to private life, indulging his outdoor passions:  
sailing, hunting and riding to the hounds.

In 1946 he married Mary Paul MacLeod. The marriage ended in divorce,  
and in 1974 he married Jacqueline Chalmers.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by the children from his  
first marriage, Henry S. Loomis of Denver; Mary P. Loomis of Hyde  
Park, Vt.; Lucy F. Loomis of Aiken, S.C.; and Gordon M. Loomis of  
Waxahachie, Tex., as well as four stepchildren, Charles J. Williams  
IV of Orlando, Fla.; John C. Williams and David F. Williams, both of  
Jacksonville; Robert W. Williams of Cary, N.C.; 17 grandchildren and  
two great-grandchildren.


Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
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