Edwin Richard Bayley was born on August 24, 1918 in Chicago, Illinois. He was educated in the public schools of Madison, Milwaukee, and Appleton, Wisconsin and received a BA degree in English literature from Lawrence College (Appleton) in 1940. After winning a scholarship for advanced study in the field of journalism, he attended Yale Graduate School working toward a Ph.D. in English.
In 1941 and 1942 he worked as a general reporter and feature writer for the Green Bay Press-Gazette (Wisconsin). Joining the Navy Reserve in 1941, he later served in both the Atlantic and Pacific and was discharged as a lieutenant in January, 1946.
Upon discharge, Bayley was employed as a general and a city hall reporter by the Milwaukee Journal. In January 1947 he was reassigned as the Milwaukee Journal's chief political reporter, covering state and national politics. In 1951 he wrote a series of fourteen articles exposing secrecy in Wisconsin state and local government which won a citation from the American Society of Newspaper Editors and was submitted for the Pulitzer Prize. In 1952 and 1953, he was the Wisconsin correspondent for Time, Inc. While working for the Milwaukee Journal, he also wrote for the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Louisville-Courier-Journal, the Nashville Tennessean, the Kansas City Star, and other newspapers. In addition, he was a regular contributor to the New Republic and The Economist. In 1959 Bayley received an International Press Institute exchange fellowship to study the British press, during which time he was attached to the Daily Mail, the Manchester Guardian, and the Glasgow Herald.
Bayley left the Milwaukee Journal in August 1959 to become the executive secretary, chief of staff, policy consultant and speech writer to Governor Gaylord Nelson. In March 1961, he accepted the post of director of public information for the Peace Corps, charged with responsibility for setting up a public affairs agency and handling the dissemination of information to the media. Six months later he was appointed special assistant to President John F. Kennedy and assigned to the office of the press secretary where he coordinated information from government agencies. In this capacity Bayley was responsible for organizing conferences for improving information services, and he served as director of information for several small, temporary panels. He also conducted research for the President and traveled with him as acting press secretary.
In December 1961 the President named Bayley as director of public affairs for the Agency for International Development (AID).
In 1964 Bayley became public affairs editor for National Educational Television (NET) in New York. At that time NET was the principal source of national and international programming for 130 educational television stations. As public affairs editor Bayley was responsible for program content in the fields of politics, government, foreign affairs, and social issues. During 1964 and part of 1965, Bayley was host-commentator on the program series Regional Report which he organized using local newspaper reporters to develop regional treatments of a central national issue. 0n February 1, 1965, he was appointed vice president for administration, a position responsible for general administration, including budgeting, personnel, labor relations, engineering, distribution, legal and business matters, and information.
At the request of the White House, in 1965 Bayley took a six-week leave of absence to direct press and media relations for the planning session of the White House Conference on Civil Rights. Later he served as a part-time consultant to the conference.
On March 1, 1969, Bayley became dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to his administrative duties, he taught courses on political and governmental reporting. In May, 1985, Bayley was given the Berkeley Citation, the highest honor awarded by Berkeley, for “distinguished achievement and for notable service to the University.” In 1986 he was awarded a Doctor of Laws degree from Lawrence University for his work in journalism and service to graduate education.
Bayley's book, Joe McCarthy and the Press, was published in 1981 by the University of Wisconsin Press. It won the George Polk Award and the Frank Luther Mott award for research in journalism.
In 1941 while working for the Green Bay Press Gazette, Bayley married a college classmate, Monica Worsley of Racine, Wisconsin. In addition to raising two children, Monica Bayley has worked as a newspaper reporter, magazine editor, advertising copywriter, director of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee News Service, member of the information staff in the U.S. Office of Education, and free-lance editor. While the family resided in California she was an editor for a San Francisco publishing firm. In addition, she has written cookbooks and children's books.
Bayley retired in 1985 and spent several years lecturing at various journalism schools throughout the world. He is now retired in Door County, Wisconsin.
