Louis LaCoss

Louis LaCoss (January 8, 1890 – February 17, 1966) was an American journalist. In 1952, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for his editorial "The Low Estate of Public Morals".

Biography LaCoss was born on January 8, 1890, in Erie, Pennsylvania. and attended the University of Kansas, where he wrote for The University Daily Kansan, his first experience as a journalist. He joined the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, the paper for which he would be best known.

With the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, LaCoss worked as a travelling reporter between 1924 and 1936, covering political conventions. Beginning in 1936, he was an editorialist. He wrote the editorial "Low Estate of Public Morals" for the newspaper, which won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing. In it, he correlated a cheating scandal at the United States Military Academy to general morality of the society. He became one of the papers' vice-presidents in 1952, then retired in 1958. Besides journalism, he was a trustee of the University of Kansas.

LaCoss had a son. He died on February 17, 1966, aged 76, in St. Louis, of heart disease. He is buried in Lawrence, Kansas.