2008 Woodie Awards
The remarkable Howard Ziff
S.P. Sullivan, Collegian Staff
Issue date: 9/4/08 Section: Arts & Living
An old hand at news writing, Howard M. Ziff, professor emeritus of the journalism department at the University of Massachusetts, could probably write a better lead paragraph than this one.
"I can't pick up a newspaper without rewriting what I see," he said.
Ziff, 78, looks more like a philosopher than journalist. Never without his corncob pipe, he strokes his beard as he talks, raising bushy, white eyebrows out from behind large glasses when speaking of something he's passionate about. He's a robust man, gruff-voiced, and walks with a cane-due, he says, to a climbing accident in Hungary in the late 1980's.
He's seen combat, worked as an editor over esteemed Chicago columnist Mike Royko and started the journalism department at UMass. He loves poetry and the history of the English language, classic movies and chamber music.
And he'll speak with authority on all of it.
Born in Holyoke, Mass., the son of a Jewish curtain maker, Ziff got his bachelor's degree in philosophy from Amherst College in 1952. He enrolled in Columbia University's masters program with plans to become a professor of philosophy, but eventually decided he wanted more for himself.
Knowing full well that dropping out would annul his draft deferment, Ziff left anyway. This was in the thick of the Korean War, and although he didn't enlist, he was "delighted to be drafted."
"It was the two most important years of my life," he said.
Ziff cut his journalism teeth at Pacific Stars and Stripes, the daily military newspaper.
"I got to Stars and Stripes in a very lucky way," he recalls. "I got there and there was a guy, an information officer, and he saw there was this guy from Amherst College and he said 'this guy can write,' so I got to work for them."
Ziff worked for Stars and Stripes as a writer and reporter, but also got to try his hand at humor writing, working closely with the staff cartoonist, a young poet and artist named Sheldon "Shel" Silverstein. Ziff said the two became a "good pair."
"I can't pick up a newspaper without rewriting what I see," he said.
Ziff, 78, looks more like a philosopher than journalist. Never without his corncob pipe, he strokes his beard as he talks, raising bushy, white eyebrows out from behind large glasses when speaking of something he's passionate about. He's a robust man, gruff-voiced, and walks with a cane-due, he says, to a climbing accident in Hungary in the late 1980's.
He's seen combat, worked as an editor over esteemed Chicago columnist Mike Royko and started the journalism department at UMass. He loves poetry and the history of the English language, classic movies and chamber music.
And he'll speak with authority on all of it.
Born in Holyoke, Mass., the son of a Jewish curtain maker, Ziff got his bachelor's degree in philosophy from Amherst College in 1952. He enrolled in Columbia University's masters program with plans to become a professor of philosophy, but eventually decided he wanted more for himself.
Knowing full well that dropping out would annul his draft deferment, Ziff left anyway. This was in the thick of the Korean War, and although he didn't enlist, he was "delighted to be drafted."
"It was the two most important years of my life," he said.
Ziff cut his journalism teeth at Pacific Stars and Stripes, the daily military newspaper.
"I got to Stars and Stripes in a very lucky way," he recalls. "I got there and there was a guy, an information officer, and he saw there was this guy from Amherst College and he said 'this guy can write,' so I got to work for them."
Ziff worked for Stars and Stripes as a writer and reporter, but also got to try his hand at humor writing, working closely with the staff cartoonist, a young poet and artist named Sheldon "Shel" Silverstein. Ziff said the two became a "good pair."
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