Whitelaw Reid ( journalist ) Whitelaw Reid ( July 26 , 1913 – April 18 , 2009 ) was an American journalist who later served as editor , president and chairman of the family - owned " New York Herald Tribune " . An avid sportsman throughout his life , he won a national singles title in his age group at age 85 and a national doubles title at age 90 , both in tennis . Early life . Reid was born to Helen Rogers Reid and Ogden Mills Reid at the family estate , Ophir Hall , in Purchase , New York , on July 26 , 1913 . He was given the name of his grandfather Whitelaw Reid , who published the newspaper and also served as United States Ambassador to both France and the United Kingdom , as well as being the Republican vice presidential nominee with incumbent President Benjamin Harrison in 1892 ( lost ) . His early education was at the Lincoln School , New York City , New York , and at the St . Paul ' s School , Concord , New Hampshire . He later attended Yale University , New Haven , Connecticut , where he was awarded a degree in sociology in 1936 . While in college , he sailed a schooner across the Atlantic Ocean from Norway to the U . S . with a group of his fellow students and was a member of the Conservative Party of the Yale Political Union . Career . He joined his father ' s newspaper , the " New York Herald Tribune " , in 1938 , working in the mechanical department , after being trained in printing at the Rochester Institute of Technology , Henrietta , New York , and learning the operation of the firm ' s Mergenthaler Linotype machine s . By 1940 he was a reporter , and spent time in the United Kingdom reporting on World War II during The Blitz and filing reports based on flying with the U . K . Royal Air Force in missions over Europe and on a trawler in the English Channel monitoring for Nazi actions . He served in the U . S . Navy , commissioned in 1941 as a pilot , spending most of the war transporting Navy planes in the U . S . He was sent to the Pacific Theater in 1945 , where his squadron based on Iwo Jima , Japan , performed survey missions off the coast of Japan . After completing his military service in 1946 , Reid returned to the paper as assistant to the editor , and was named editor and vice president after his father ' s death the following year . He was named editor and president in 1953 , and assumed the title of chairman in April 1955 , succeeding his mother , at the same time his brother Ogden R . Reid was named as publisher . Reid ' s leadership of the paper saw circulation increase , while journalistic standards declined . A paper that " The New York Times " described as " a newspaperman ' s newspaper , " staffed by talented reporters , resorted to puzzles and gimmicks to draw readers . Ambassador and investor John Hay Whitney bought the parent company from the Reid family in 1958 , but a redesign and new reporters failed to revive the paper , which succumbed to the effects of strikes and other difficulties which ended in 1967 when what had become the " New York World Journal Tribune " ceased publication in 1967 . The suspension of publication by the " World Journal Tribune " on May 5 , 1967 , left New York City with three major daily newspapers — the " Daily News " , the " New York Post " and " The New York Times " — the same papers that have served the city for the succeeding decades . While with the " Herald Tribune " , Reid was the president of The Fresh Air Fund , a fundraising effort run through the paper that helped provide summer vacations for underprivileged children living in New York City . After the paper ' s demise , the program was carried on by " The New York Times " . Following the closure of the paper , he established Reid Enterprises , serving until 1975 as its president . Personal . His first marriage , to the former Joan Brandon , ended with their divorce in Reno , Nevada , in September 1959 . The two had been married in 1948 and had had two children , Brandon and Carson . An avid tennis player for most of his life , Reid won the national indoor singles championship in 1998 for competitors age 85 and older , earning the fourth spot in nationwide rankings in his age group . In September 2003 , together with David Carey , he won the United States Tennis Association ' s national clay - court doubles championship for men over age 90 . During his life , Reid had been a pilot , yachtsman , skier , swimmer and rode horses , in addition to his lifelong passion for playing tennis . A resident of Bedford Hills , New York , Reid died at age 95 on April 18 , 2009 at the White Plains Hospital Center , White Plains , New York , from complications resulting from lung and heart failure . He was survived by his second wife , the former Elizabeth Ann Brooks , whom he married in 1959 . In addition to the two children from his first marriage , he was survived by the two children from his second marriage , John Graham and Gina Rogers , and by 11 grandchildren and five great - grandchildren . Ophir Hall , the family ' s estate , is now the site of Manhattanville College .