Virtually all of Robert Lasch's life, until retirement in 1971, has been spent as a journalist. Born in 1907 in Lincoln, Nebraska, the son of Theodore Walter and Myrtle Nelson Lasch, Lasch attended the University of Nebraska (A.B., 1928) and later studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, 1928-1931. While a student at the University of Nebraska, Lasch covered the police news for the Lincoln Daily Star. On returning from England he joined the staff of the Omaha World-Herald, serving (1931-1941) as a reporter, state editor, and editorial writer. Following a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard (1941-1942), Lasch moved to the Chicago Sun and Sun Times as an editorial writer, remaining there until 1950.
In 1950 Lasch joined the staff of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as an editorial writer and in 1957 became editor of the editorial page. His tenure there coincided with the Korean War, McCarthyism, the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War. Lasch's editorials were noted for their strong defense of civil liberties, their opposition to Senator Joseph McCarthy, and their criticism of the Vietnam War. He was a friend and vigorous supporter of Adlai Stevenson. In a 1967 letter, Lasch claimed that the editorials in which he took the greatest pride were those dealing with Vietnam and his 1964 editorial campaign seeking to reverse the decision to deny a medical license to Dr. Harold Lischner because of his conscientious objector status. In 1966 Lasch was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his editorials opposing the Vietnam War and the St. Louis (Missouri) Civil Liberties Award.
In addition to his editorial career, Lasch contributed to a number of periodicals, among them The Progressive, The Reporter, and the International Press Institute Report, and won the Atlantic Monthly Prize (1944) for his essay “For a Free Press.” He also contributed to Newsman's Holiday (Cambridge: Oxford University, 1942) and published a book on homebuilding, Breaking the Building Blockade (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1946).
Robert Lasch died April 6, 1998 in Green Valley, Arizona.
