Gene Methvin

Eugene Hilburn "Gene" Methvin (September 19, 1934 – January 19, 2012) was an American pilot, journalist, and senior editor for the Reader's Digest Washington, D.C., bureau. A self-described "shoe leather reporter," Methvin contributed more than 100 articles to Reader's Digest and its 48 editions, reaching more than 100 million readers worldwide. His articles covered topics ranging from the U.S. Supreme Court, civil liberties and constitutional law, to U.S. defense posture, Kremlin politics, U.S.-Soviet relations, organized crime and international terrorist groups. An article by Methvin in the January 1965 Reader's Digest, "How the Reds Make a Riot," won the magazine the award for public service in magazine journalism given annually by the Society for Professional Journalists.

Methvin's work on communism, crime and corruption earned him not only the respect of his peers, but influence in government. His articles in Reader's Digest helped rally necessary support for legislation that would go on to become law and, in 1983, he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the President's Commission on Organized Crime. Methvin supervised the commission's investigation and hearing on labor-management racketeering. Marvin Wolfgang, past president and fellow of the American Society of Criminology, wrote of Methvin, "No journalist or reporter knows more about criminology."

Growing up in Vienna in the 1930s and 1940s had a major impact on Methvin’s work throughout his life. Methvin’s parents published The Vienna News, known for its opposition to Jim Crow laws. Methvin’s parents received death threats from Ku Klux Klan members for their views. In his later years he would recall that, "as a young man I considered myself a liberal, because I was against lynching. When I got to Washington, to my surprise, I learned I was a conservative."

Methvin studied journalism at the University of Georgia School of Journalism. On campus he served as a member of the debate team and was a four-year letterman on UGA's football team under legendary coach, Wallace Butts. He belonged to Sigma Nu fraternity, and the Society of Professional Journalists, (Sigma Delta Chi), which named him the outstanding male graduate of 1955. He was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and worked briefly as a reporter on the Atlanta Constitution. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism degree, cum laude, with a supplementary major and postgraduate study in law at the University of Georgia School of Law.

Methvin was the prime author of a series of hard-hitting Reader's Digest articles in 1970-72 that played a key role in shaping the federal government's war on organized crime. The proposed Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, including the famous "RICO" statute, was snugly corked in committee in Congress, and Chairman Emanuel Celler (D., N.Y.) of the House Judiciary Committee was determined to kill it there. But so much mail poured in to Congress as a result of two Methvin articles ("How the Mafia Preys on the Poor," September '70; and "The Mafia War on the A&P," July '70) that a discharged petition forced Celler to bring the legislation to the floor for a vote. "I've got to get that blankety-blank Reader's Digest off my back," he grumbled. When the bill passed overwhelmingly, 341 to 26, Sen. John McClellan, its chief architect, expressed his thanks to Methvin for his "especially significant contribution to the passage of this measure." And Attorney General John N. Mitchell sent him a pen used by President Richard Nixon to sign the bill, expressing the Administration's gratitude "for the part you played in bringing this important crime legislation into being." Ironically, three years later it was this law's limited testimonial immunity provision that enabled the Senate Watergate Committee to compel White House Counsel John Dean to testify, leading ultimately to Mitchell's subsequent imprisonment and President Nixon's resignation.

Methvin and the Digest were sued for $4 million by an organized crime figure named in one of his articles. After he presented his documentation and deposition on his investigation, a New York State judge dismissed the suit, declaring, "Documentation supplied by defendants showed they acted responsibly in extensively investigating all aspects of the story, which was imbued with legitimate public concern." Methvin declared he would have been happy to have the judge's ruling engraved on his tombstone.

Methvin also tackled the "religion" of Scientology in a 1980 article titled, "Scientology: Anatomy of a Frightening Cult".

His "swan song" was a July 2001 article about a rank-and-file crusader who helped break the back of a corrupt racketeering organization in the New York City employees union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union District Council 37.

Personal life In 1959 Methvin married Barbara Lester of Byromville, Georgia, and the couple had two daughters, Helen and Claudia. Barbara was killed on March 31, 2000, by a speeding car as she crossed the road in front of their home. In 2011, he established the Methvin Distinguished Professorship in Southern Literature at the University of Georgia in her honor.