Jack Germond

Jack Worthen Germond (January 30, 1928 – August 14, 2013) was an American journalist, author, and pundit. His journalistic career spanned over 50 years; Germond wrote for the Washington Star and The Baltimore Sun. Together with Jules Witcover, Germond co-wrote "Politics Today," a five-day-a-week syndicated column, for more than 24 years.

Life and career

Germond was born in Boston, Massachusetts, an only child and raised in a striving middle-class household in Boston and Trenton, New Jersey. When he was 13, his family moved to Mississippi, and then to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Germond finished high school. After attending Louisiana State University for one semester, he served in the U.S. Army in 1946–47, returning to college on the GI bill and then graduating from the University of Missouri with degrees in journalism and history.

He began his career working for Gannett's Rochester Times-Union in 1961. He moved to the Washington Star in 1974, became a syndicated columnist and national editor, and went on to The Baltimore Sun when the Star folded. He began to appear on Meet the Press in 1972, the Today Show in 1980, and the NBC and PBS program The McLaughlin Group from its inception in 1981.

Despite having been a television personality for decades, Germond cultivated an image of being an old-fashioned newspaper reporter, somewhat disdainful of slick TV types, and who liked to visit the horse racing track and enjoy the occasionaldrink.[citation needed]

A fixture on The McLaughlin Group for 15 years before abruptly resigning, he later appeared on CNN, and appeared for a time on the PBS program Inside Washington. In 2011 he wrote several pieces on the 2012 Presidential election for The Daily Beast, an online-only publication. His political opinions were generally liberal, and he was an atheist.

Personal life

Germond and his first wife, Barbara Wipple, a fellow student at the University of Missouri, were married shortly after he graduated in 1951. They had two daughters, Mandy and Jessica. In 1977, after battling leukemia for five years, Mandy died at age 14. Jessica (now Jessica Moreland) is a pediatrician who does clinical work and research.

In 1984, Germond met political activist and Democratic campaign party operative Alice Travis. Germond and his wife Barbara subsequently divorced, and in 1988, he and Alice Travis married. Alice Travis Germond has two children from a prior marriage, David Travis and Abigail Travis, and is the current Secretary Emeritus of the Democratic National Committee.

Death

Germond died at his home on August 14, 2013, aged 85.

Books written

With Witcover

• Blue Smoke & Mirrors: How Reagan Won and Why Carter Lost the Election of 1980, Viking Press (1981)
• Wake Us When It's Over: Presidential Politics of 1984, Macmillan (1985)
• Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars? The Trivial Pursuit of the Presidency 1988, Warner Books (1989)
• Mad As Hell: Revolt at the Ballot Box 1992, Warner Books (1992)

Solo

• Fat Man in a Middle Seat: Forty Years of Covering Politics, Random House (2002)
• Fat Man Fed Up: How American Politics Went Bad, Random House (2004)