James L. Greenfield

Author

Birthday July 16, 1924

Birth Sign Cancer

Birthplace Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.

Age 99 years old

Nationality United States

#39322 Most Popular

1924

James Lloyd Greenfield (born 16 July 1924) served as United States Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs from 1962 to 1966 and was one of the editors of the New York Times who decided to publish the Pentagon Papers in 1971.

Born in Cleveland in 1924, Greenfield attended high school at Cleveland Heights High School, graduating in 1942.

He then went on to receive a B.A. from Harvard College.

After college, Greenfield became a foreign correspondent for Time, with postings in Asia, Europe and Washington.

He rose to become Time's chief diplomatic correspondent.

Greenfield joined the United States Department of State during the Kennedy administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs.

In the early 1950s, while posted in Hong Kong for Time, Greenfield met his future first wife, Margaret Ann Schwertley (December 23, 1924 – December 8, 1999), who was a Pan Am stewardess based out of Hong Kong; the couple wed in 1954.

1950

Beginning in the 1950s, she was an art and antiques dealer in London, Washington and finally New York, where until 1998 she owned and ran Marco Polo, a store located on Madison Avenue between E. 84th and E. 85th Streets in Manhattan.

The couple lived in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and Greenfield and his wife also developed brownstone houses.

Greenfield is married to Ene Riisna Greenfield, an Emmy Award-winning former producer for ABC Television's 20/20.

1964

In 1964, President of the United States Lyndon Johnson promoted Greenfield to Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Greenfield held this office from September 10, 1964, until March 12, 1966.

After leaving the administration, Greenfield became Vice President of Continental Airlines, then owned by its founder Robert Six, and founded Air Micronesia for Continental which gave the airline a route to Asia.

He also worked as News Director of WINS-NY radio station where he set up 24-hour news for the station's pioneering all-news programming.

1967

Greenfield joined the New York Times in 1967 as assistant metropolitan editor.

1969

From 1969 to 1977, he was the Times' foreign news editor, and was the project editor during the publication of the Pentagon Papers, even briefly hiding them in his apartment between organizing sessions in Washington and New York, for which the New York Times won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

1977

He became an assistant managing editor in 1977.

1987

In 1987, the New York Times announced that Greenfield would become editor of The New York Times Magazine, while remaining an assistant managing editor of the Times.

1991

In 1991, Greenfield stepped down as assistant managing editor, though he remained a consulting member of the editorial board.

Greenfield is a founder of The Independent Journalism Foundation and has served in a volunteer capacity as its President since its founding in 1991.

IJF is a nonprofit organization that operates centers and related training programs for the media in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.