William R. Burleigh has spent his entire career with The E.W. Scripps Company. He started at age 15, as a part-time sports reporter at The Evansville Press and 50 years later, he retired as Scripps' chief executive officer in September 2000. Along the way, he has served as editor of The Evansville Press and The Cincinnati Post, senior vice president of the newspaper division and company president.
Mr. Burleigh’s volunteer work speaks of his passion for journalism. He has served as director of The Associated Press, chairman of the American Press Institute and president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors Foundation. He is a founding trustee of the First Amendment Congress and a four-time Pulitzer Prize juror. In 1984, he co-edited "Free Press & Fair Trial," a publication of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the American Newspaper Publishers Association.
He has also been devoted to the two cities he has called home. Mr. Burleigh has served as chairman of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation; co-chairman of the Metropolitan Growth Alliance of Greater Cincinnati; chairman of board of trustees of the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce; chairman of Good Samaritan Hospital; trustee of the Rabbit Hash, Kentucky Historical Society; and as director of the Hebrew Union College Ethics Center. He is a past-president of Leadership Evansville and former chairman of Leadership Cincinnati.
He currently serves as chairman at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
For his achievements and contributions, Mr. Burleigh has been inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame and the Cincinnati Journalism Hall of Fame. He has been honored as the Marquette University Alumnus of the Year and has received honorary doctorates from the University of Southern Indiana and Cincinnati State. He is a recipient of the Isaiah Thomas Award from Rochester Institute of Technology and the Anvil of Freedom Award from the University of Denver, the Human Relations Award from the American Jewish Committee and the Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
Though Mr. Burleigh is well-known for his leadership of for-profit, charitable and public institutions, his extensive community service also includes behind-the-scenes activity.
He has worked as a volunteer in an inner-city school and he has delivered communion to patients at Good Samaritan Hospital. He’s a Habitat for Humanity volunteer. As a Knight of Malta, he accompanies medical patients on annual pilgrimages to Lourdes, France.
Mr. Burleigh and his wife, Anne, an
author, live on a farm near Rabbit Hash. They have three
children: David, an attorney; Sr. Anne Catherine, O.P., a
Dominican nun; Margaret, a teacher; and seven
grandchildren.