Sig Mickelson, prominently involved in publishing and broadcast journalism since 1936, was born in Clinton, Minnesota on May 24, 1913. He received his B.A. from Augustana College, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 1934 and his M.A. from the University of Minnesota in 1940.
After teaching news gathering and editing at the University of Minnesota, the University of Kansas and Louisiana State University, Mickelson joined the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1943 as news editor of its Minneapolis station, WCCO. He later became WCCO's director of public affairs. In 1949 CBS transferred him to its network headquarters in New York; two years later he became director of news and public affairs for CBS Television. In 1954 he was named vice-president of CBS and general manager of the news division. In 1959 he was promoted to first president of CBS News.
Mickelson retired from his position with CBS in 1961 to become Director of International Broadcasting in the broadcast division of Time. Inc. (later Time-Life Boradcast, Inc.). For a short time he was chief of the broadcast organization of Encyclopedia Britannica Educational Corporation, a position he left in 1973 to join the faculty of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He resigned from that position in 1975 to accept an appointment as president of radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.
Mickelson was a member of (and often an officer in) the following professional organizations: the Overseas Press Club, the Players, the National Association of Radio News Directors, the Council on Foreign Relations, Sigma Delta Chi honorary journalism fraternity, International Broadcast Institute, the Broadcast Institute of North America, and the American Institute for Political Communication.
Sig Mickelson died in March 2000.
