Erik Barnouw ’29

Erik died on July 19, 2001. He was 93. Born in The Hague, Holland, he prepared at the Horace Mann School. At Princeton he played basketball and soccer. He was editor of the Nassau Literary Magazine, a member of the Triangle Club, Theatre Intime, the Executive Committee, Phi Beta Kappa, and Key and Seal Club.

He was a writer and editor for CBS and an editor for NBC. While holding a professorship at Columbia U., he wrote a trilogy on the history of radio and television broadcasting that anchored his reputation as the foremost scholar of broadcasting.

After retiring from Columbia, he received an honorary degree from that university. He became a Wilson scholar, then chief of Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress. His awards were numerous and included the Eastman Kodak Gold Medal and a Life Achievement Award. He was national chairman of the Writers Guild of America and a member of the Society of American Historians, which established an award in his honor.

His survivors include his wife, Elizabeth; a son, Jeffrey; two daughters, Susanna and Karen; a sister, Elsa; a grandson, and a great- grandson. To all of these the class extends its sincere sympathy.

The Class of 1929