John B. Oakes was born in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, on April 23, 1913. He was educated at
the Collegiate School (New York City), Lawrenceville School, and Princeton University. While
at Princeton, he was editorial editor of The Daily
Princetonian. He graduated magna cum laude from Princeton in 1934, and was
valedictorian of his class.
Oakes won a Rhodes Scholarship to The Queens College, Oxford University, where he studied
from 1934 to 1936. He also studied at the University of Dijon in France in 1935. From
Oxford, he received his second A.B. and an A.M. degree.
After spending 1936-1937 as a reporter for New Jersey's Trenton
Times, Oakes went to the Washington Post as a
reporter of congressional and political affairs and as a special feature writer on foreign
affairs. He remained with the Post until 1941 when he entered
the Army.
A year after his enlistment, Oakes was commissioned as an infantry officer. He served
twenty-two months in the European theatre, where he was decorated by the American, British,
and French governments. He was discharged from the Army as a major in 1946.
In 1946, Oakes came to the New York Times, where for three
years he edited the Review of the Week section of the Sunday paper. From 1949 until 1961, he
was a member of the Times' editorial board, specializing in
national and international affairs. He frequently contributed to the Times Sunday Magazine and Book Review,
and for ten years wrote a monthly column on the conservation of natural resources. In
connection with his interest in conservation, he was a member of the Advisory Board on
National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings, and Monuments (Department of the Interior) for
the term 1955-1962.
In 1959 Oakes spent nearly a year in Europe and Africa as recipient of an award from the
Carnegie Foundation for travel and study. His book The Edge of
Freedom (1961) resulted from this trip.
Among the awards Oakes received are the Collegiate School Award of Honor for preeminence in
his field of endeavor (1963); the first Columbia Catherwood Award for enlightened
international journalism (1960); the Princeton University Class of 1934 Award for
Outstanding Achievement (1964); the George Polk Memorial Award for making the New York Times editorial page the most vital and influential
journalistic voice in America (1966); and another George Polk Memorial Award for his
lifetime achievements (2001).
Oakes believed that the most important function of the editorial page was to provide
constructive criticism on news developments and to express an informed opinion on the whole
range of human activity as it is reflected in the daily newspaper. He believed that nobody
should be left in doubt as to where the Times stands on any
major subject, and he thought it was not only the opportunity but the duty of the editorial
page to enter into any significant public controversy.
An award named in honor of Oakes was established in 1994 by the Natural Resources Defense
Council as an annual prize for print journalists—The John B. Oakes Award for
Distinguished Environmental Journalism.
Oakes was married to Margery C. Hartman of Hartford, Connecticut, in 1945. They had three
daughters and one son. Oakes is a nephew of Adolph Ochs, the founder of the modern New York Times. John B. Oakes died on April 5, 2001 in
Manhattan.
