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Frank Rich’s career at The New York Times began in 1980 when he was named chief theater critic. Beginning in 1994, he became an op-ed columnist, and in 1999 he became the first Times columnist to write a regular double-length column for the op-ed page. Rich’s weekly essay on the intersection of culture and news draws on his background as a theater critic and observer of art, entertainment, and politics.
Campus & Community
New York Times columnist wins Goldsmith
Frank Rich recognized for ‘excellence in journalism’
Frank Rich, op-ed page columnist for The New York Times, will address an audience of students, faculty, journalists, and members of the public on March 7 at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). The program begins at 6 p.m. in the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, 79 JFK St.
Rich will receive the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism as part of the annual Goldsmith Awards Ceremony. The Goldsmith Awards are sponsored annually by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, based at HKS.
Rich’s career at The New York Times began in 1980 when he was named chief theater critic. Beginning in 1994, he became an op-ed columnist, and in 1999 he became the first Times columnist to write a regular double-length column for the op-ed page. Rich’s weekly essay on the intersection of culture and news draws on his background as a theater critic and observer of art, entertainment, and politics.
In addition to his work at the Times, Rich has written about culture and politics for many other publications. His childhood memoir, “Ghost Light,” was published in 2000 by Random House. His book, “The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina,” was published in 2006.
Before joining the Times, Rich was a film and television critic at Time magazine. Earlier, he had been film critic for the New York Post and film critic and senior editor of New Times magazine. He was a founding editor of the Richmond, Va., Mercury, a weekly newspaper, in the early 1970s.
Born on June 2, 1949, in Washington, D.C., Rich is a graduate of the district’s public schools. He earned a B.A. degree in American history and literature, graduating magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1971. At Harvard, he was editorial chairman of the Harvard Crimson, an honorary Harvard College Scholar, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and the recipient of a Henry Russell Shaw Traveling Fellowship.
Past recipients of the Goldsmith Career Award include Christiane Amanpour, Seymour Hersh, Peter Jennings, Gwen Ifill, David Fanning, and Daniel Schorr. The Goldsmith Awards also include a major prize for investigative reporting and a book prize.
