Newton N. Minow was born January 17, 1926, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he graduated from Washington High School during World War II. After enlisting in the Army, he was sent to the University of Michigan to study engineering and later served with the 835th Signal Service Battalion in India, helping to install a telephone line linking India and China.
On his return to civilian life he entered Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois, where he received the B.S. degree in speech in 1949 and the LL.B. in 1950. After a brief period with a Chicago law firm, he served as law clerk to Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1952 he became administrative assistant to Adlai E. Stevenson, then governor of Illinois. Returning to his old law office on the expiration of Governor Stevenson's term, Minow joined with Stevenson in establishing a new legal firm in Chicago in 1955.
It was from this partnership that the newly-elected president, John F. Kennedy, selected Newton Minow to serve as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, a position he held from March 1961 to May 1963. He had long been interested in broadcasting, particularly educational TV, as his firm was counsel to the Midwest Council for Airborne Television, and he was legal advisor to Encyclopedia Britannica Films Inc., a pioneer in new techniques in visual education. His interest in broadcasting had been heightened by his participation in Stevenson's 1952 and 1956 presidential campaigns; and in the 1960 campaign, when he was secretary of the National Business and Professional Men and Women for Kennedy-Johnson.
During his chairmanship of the FCC he succeeded in focusing public attention on the significance of television in its influence on both children and adults, and thus emphasized the great responsibility facing the television industry. His views were well expressed in his speech of May 9, 1961, before the National Association of Broadcasters when he referred to television as a “vast wasteland.” As chairman of the FCC he was also concerned with the development of a commercially feasible communications system through space satellites.
Mr. Minow resigned from the Federal Communications Commission to become executive vice president and general counsel of Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. In 1965 he continues as special counsel to the Britannica and also to the Curtis Publishing Company, and in addition has become a senior partner in the Chicago law firm of Leibman, Williams, Bennett, Baird and Minow. He lives near Chicago with his wife, Josephine, and his three daughters.
Mr. Minow's publications include frequent articles on the Chicago court system and on broadcasting. He lectures often on public issues, and he is an active member of the American Jewish Committee, the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Chicago Bar Association, and many other civic organizations. In November 1964, his book, Equal Time: The Private Broadcaster and the Public Interest, was published. This is a collection of his speeches edited by Lawrence Laurent, radio and TV editor for the Washington Post.
