Gene Foreman worked in journalism for a half-century -- more than 41 years in the newsroom and more than eight years in the academy. Before that, he delivered newspapers and had eight summer newspaper jobs while in high school and college.
When he retired after 25 years managing editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1998, Gene joined the College of Communications faculty at Pennsylvania State University. He retired in December 2006 as the Larry and Ellen Foster Professor at Penn State.
Gene grew up in Arkansas and earned a degree in journalism from Arkansas State University.
Before moving to Philadelphia, he was the managing editor of the Pine Bluff (Ark.) Commercial and the Arkansas Democrat in Little Rock. He also has been a reporter and assigning editor at the Arkansas Gazette in Little Rock, a copy editor at The New York Times, and the senior editor in charge of news and copy desks at Newsday.
He was president of the Associated Press Managing Editors in 1990 and was a board member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors from 1995 to 1998.
While at Penn State, Gene taught the news media ethics course 16 semesters. Drawing on this experience -- and on his long tenure in the newsroom -- he wrote The Ethical Journalist, which was published as a college textbook in 2009 by Wiley-Blackwell. A second, thoroughly revised edition was published in summer 2015.
Gene continues as a visiting professor at Penn State, directing a conference of distinguished writers who make presentations to the students. In the 17 years that the conference has been held, 41 Pulitzer Prize winners have visited Penn State, along with best-selling authors such as James McBride, Steve Lopez, Caitlin Flanagan and Mark Bowden.
In retirement Gene has also served as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Journalism Ethics at the University of Arkansas and as Reynolds Distinguished Visiting Professor at Washington and Lee University.
