Nina Mason Pulliam

Nina Mason Pulliam (September 19, 1906 – March 26, 1997) was an American journalist, author, and newspaper executive in Arizona and Indiana, where she was also well known as a philanthropist and civic leader. Pulliam began her career as a journalist in Indiana and worked with her husband, Eugene C. Pulliam, as founding secretary-treasurer and a member of the board of Central Newspapers, Incorporated, the media holding company he established in 1934. Following her husband's death in 1975, she served as president of the company until her retirement, in 1979, and as publisher of two of the company's newspapers, the Arizona Republic and the Phoenix Gazette, from 1975 to 1978. She also wrote a series of articles that were published in North American newspapers and later compiled into several books.

During her lifetime and through the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, which was established after her death in 1997, Pulliam contributed to numerous philanthropic projects to support her varied interests in education, animals, nature, the outdoors, and Native American art and culture, especially programs in Arizona and Indiana. A major initiative of her charitable trust is the Nina Mason Pulliam Legacy Scholars program. Other recipients of her philanthropy in Arizona include the Phoenix Zoo, Heard Museum, Desert Botanical Garden, Arizona Humane Society, Phoenix's Burton Barr Central Library, the Arizona Recreation Center for the Handicapped, and a walking trail in the Grand Canyon National Park. Indiana projects have included the Nina Mason Pulliam EcoLab at Marian University and the Nina Mason Pulliam Indianapolis Special Collections Room at the Indianapolis Public Library's Central Library.

Early life and education Nina G. Mason was born on September 19, 1906, in rural Morgan County, Indiana, near Martinsville, to Laura L. (Gesaman) and Benjamin Franklin Mason. She was one of the family's seven children. Nina Mason developed a lifelong love of nature and wildlife during her youth. As a teen she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and traveled on her own to the Arizona desert to live in a Phoenix home near Camelback Mountain to recover from her illness.

Marriage and family Nina Mason married Eugene Collins Pulliam in 1941 following the death of his first wife, Myrta Smith Pulliam, in 1917, and his divorce from Marth Ott Pulliam in 1941. Mason's and Pulliam's thirty-four year marriage ended with his death in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1975 at the age of eighty-six.

Eugene Pulliam's three children from his two previous marriages included a son, Eugene Smith Pulliam (1914–1999), and two daughters, Martha Corinne Pulliam, who later married James Cline Quayle, and Helen Suzanne Pulliam, who later married William Murphy. Eugene S. Pulliam joined the family business in 1936 as news director at WIRE, an Indianapolis radio station his father owned at that time, and succeeded his father as publisher of the Indianapolis Star and the Indianapolis News in 1975. James C. and Martha C. (Pulliam) Quayle were the parents of Dan Quayle, who served as the 44th Vice President of the United States from 1989 to 1993.

Career Nina Mason began her career in journalism at Farm Life, a national magazine published in Spencer, Indiana. When the magazine ceased publication during the Great Depression, she moved to Lebanon, Indiana, where she worked at the Lebanon Reporter for newspaper publisher Eugene C. Pulliam prior to their marriage in 1941. During the extended trips Nina and Eugene Pulliam filed reports of their experiences, which were published in their newspapers. In addition, she became the first woman to earn a private pilot's license in Indiana. During her husband's sixty-three years as a newspaper publisher, he operated forty-six newspapers across the United States. In 1945 Pulliam discovered that she was allergic to printers' ink, which affected her vision. As a result of the affliction, she was no longer able to visit the publishing company's pressrooms and had to wait for newsprint to fully dry before touching the paper and reading its contents. Pulliam also loved animals; she and her husband were among the founders of the Phoenix Zoo.

The Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust was established upon her death in March 1997 to continue her philanthropic legacy.

Death and legacy Nina Mason Pulliam died of complications from a respiratory infection on March 26, 1997. On August 1, 2000, three years after her death and less than a year after the death of her stepson, Eugene S. Pulliam, the Gannett media company acquired the Central Newspaper holdings for US$2.6 billion, ending two generations of the Pulliam family's ownership of the newspaper firm.

During her lifetime as a journalist, author, and newspaper executive and through the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, established after her death in 1997, she contributed to numerous philanthropic projects to support her interests in education, animals, nature, the outdoors, and Native American art and culture. The Nina Mason Pulliam Legacy Scholars, established to assist students with college expenses, is a major program for her charitable foundation. As of 2018, Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis and Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, and Arizona State University and Maricopa County Community College District in Arizona are participating in the program.

Honors and tributes A 1957 recipient of the Delta Gamma Gold Medallion Award for her contributions to conserve sight and assist the blind. Elected a life member of the Heard Museum's board of trustees in 1965.

Facilities named in her honor Buildings and facilities in Indiana that are named in her honor include the Nina Mason Pulliam Indianapolis Special Collections Room at Central Library, the main branch of the Indianapolis Public Library, and the Nina Mason Pulliam EcoLab at Marion University in Indianapolis.

Selected published works Befriended Journey (1948) South America, Land of the Future, Jewel of the Past (1951), coauthored with Eugene C. Pulliam Iron Curtain Time: The Brave Bullies. Glimpses Backstage Just Before the Storm (1956) I Traveled a Lonely Land: This is Australia and these are the Australians, as I saw them (1955) Are We Too Late in the Middle East?: On-the-scene report from Istanbul to Cairo (1958), coauthored with Eugene C. Pulliam We Are All in This Together (1970)