| Sources |
- [S112] Census, 1930.
Name: Waldo Proffitt Jr.
Titles and Terms: Jr
Event Type: Census
Event Year: 1930
Event Place: Chickasha, Grady, Oklahoma, United States
District: 0006
Gender: Male
Age: 5
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Race (Original): White
Relationship to Head of Household: Son
Relationship to Head of Household (Original): Son
Birth Year (Estimated): 1925
Birthplace: Texas
Immigration Year:
Father's Birthplace: Texas
Mother's Birthplace: Texas
Sheet Number and Letter: 19B
Household ID: 466
Line Number: 51
Affiliate Name: The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
Affiliate Publication Number: T626
Affiliate Film Number: 1904
GS Film number: 2341638
Digital Folder Number: 004661220
Image Number: 00177
Household Gender Age Birthplace
Head Waldo Proffitt M 35 Texas
Wife Annie Proffitt F 39 Texas
Son Waldo Proffitt Jr. M 5 Texas
Daughter Anneita B Proffitt F 0 Oklahoma
Mother-in-law Susie S Smith F 71 Kentucky
- [S121] Draft Registration.
Name: Waldo Jr Proffitt
Name (Original): PROFFITT WALDO JR
Event Type: Military Service
Event Date: 12 Mar 1943
Term of Enlistment: Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law
Event Place: Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Residence Place:
Race: White
Citizenship Status: citizen
Birth Year: 1924
Birthplace: TEXAS
Education Level: 4 years of high school
Civilian Occupation: Occupations in manufacture of automobiles, n.e.c.
Marital Status: Single, without dependents
Military Rank: Private
Army Branch:
Army Component: Selectees (Enlisted Men)
Source Reference: Civil Life
Serial Number: 31303458
Affiliate Publication Title: Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938-1946
Affiliate ARC Identifier: 1263923
Box Film Number: 04233.145
- [S142] Newspaper Article, Herald Tribune (Sarasota, FL), 6 Dec 2016.
Waldo Proffitt, longtime Herald-Tribune editor, dies at 92
He was an advocate for rational government and environmental sustainability.
By Barbara Peters Smith
Waldo Proffitt - for many years an editor, columnist, and gentle advocate for rational progress and environmental sustainability at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune - passed away today at the Pines of Sarasota nursing home at the age of 92.
In a newspaper career that spanned the Civil Rights era and Florida's ongoing political struggle over population growth, he took on perpetrators of injustice and greed with arguments that were mild-mannered in tone but never unclear about where his sympathies lay. He wrote vigorously and successfully against what he saw as "bad business" practices - from pollution by the phosphate industry to a developer's attempt to build condominiums at the south end of Lido Key, where Ted Sperling Park is today.
"I guess the biggest challenge was the process of desegregation, which I think Sarasota has done a pretty good job of," Proffitt told Herald-Tribune reporter Billy Cox in 2015. "I was really quite fortunate in never having a publisher who was racist. I was able pretty much to take positions that I could get away with. This was a fairly liberal community for the South."
He was hired as the Herald-Tribune's managing editor in 1961 by then-owner David B. Lindsay and was named editor in 1962. When the New York Times Co. bought the paper in 1982, the news and editorial functions were split. The position of executive editor was created to oversee the news operations, and Proffitt was tapped to head the paper's editorial board, providing him with a platform to write editorials and a column.
Former editor reflects on paper's past
He formally retired as the paper's editor in 1998, but continued to write his column until 2012 - achieving an unmatched 40-year run as this community's soft-spoken and articulate watchdog.
One of many journalists he guided and encouraged over the years was Tom Tryon, who succeeded Proffitt as the paper's editorial page editor.
"Waldo Proffitt gave me what every young journalist needs: opportunities to advance, high standards to meet, the gift of a mentor's time, patience and sage advice," Tryon said Monday. "I learned from Waldo to surround myself with talented colleagues who are good people. He taught me that listening is more important than blathering, and that a successful editor and leader can embrace civility and exude a sense of decency on a newspaper's pages, in its offices and in the community. For all of this, I remain grateful."
Former Herald-Tribune publisher and executive editor Diane McFarlin, now dean of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, knew Proffitt from her own start as a Sarasota reporter in 1976.
"Waldo played a key role in shaping Sarasota to be the very special place it is today," McFarlin said. "While at times his advocacy for cautious growth was controversial, it proved to be the formula for a quality of life that is exceptional. He was the region's environmental conscience and an editorial voice of integrity."
At a retirement dinner in 1998, Waldo was presented with a framed editorial he wrote in 1962, headlined "Schools Facing Big Challenge." The editorial, calling for an orderly transition to desegregation, won first place in an Associated Press Association of Florida and the Florida Daily Newspaper Association competition.
"He has used the editorial pages to make us all mindful of our obligations," then Herald-Tribune publisher Lynn Matthews said at the tribute dinner, "so that, together, we have been able to maintain the quality of life that we have here today."
Also that year, the Waldo Proffitt Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism in Florida was established at the Zimmerman School of Advertising & Mass Communications at the University of South Florida. Recent winners have highlighted a state ban on the use of the terms "climate change" and "global warming," ecological threats to the Indian River Lagoon, the state of Florida's rivers and the disconnect between federal flood insurance and hurricane evacuation zones.
"I guess the Herald-Tribune made a name for itself as a champion for environmental causes," Proffitt recalled for a University of Florida oral history project in 2003. "While I get a certain amount of credit for that, actually the inspiration came from Dave Lindsay, who had a very sensitive nose and whose father suffered from throat cancer as a result of many years of cigarette smoking. Dave could not stand polluted air, and he could sniff it out."
The Zimmerman School issued a statement Monday: "The school has been happy to honor Mr. Proffitt's contributions to journalism with the Waldo Proffitt Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism for nearly two decades. We will proudly continue to honor his legacy by recognizing outstanding environmental reporting in our state."
Born in Texas to parents who were high school teachers, Proffitt grew up in Chickasha, Oklahoma. He often later recalled the culture shock he experienced as a 17-year-old scholarship student in the Harvard University class of 1946. Because of World War II, he actually graduated in 1948, after serving in the Army Air Corps and Air Force. In 1945 he was stationed in Italy, he told the University of Florida, he "flew on a few inconsequential missions."
After the war, he joined the staff of The Crimson at Harvard, and became head of its editorial board. His first job after graduation was at the Bangor Daily Commercial. After being recalled to the Air Force and serving at the Pentagon, he joined the Charlotte News as city editor in 1954. He also worked briefly in Lorain, Ohio, before coming to the Herald-Tribune as managing editor.
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
Name: Waldo Proffitt
Titles and Terms: Mr
Event Type: Marriage
Event Date: 31 Aug 1921
Event Place: Collin, Texas, United States
Age:
Birth Year (Estimated):
Father's Name:
Father's Titles and Terms:
Mother's Name:
Mother's Titles and Terms:
Spouse's Name: Annie Smith
Spouse's Titles and Terms: Miss
Spouse's Age:
Spouse's Birth Year (Estimated):
Spouse's Mother's Name:
Spouse's Mother's Titles and Terms:
Spouse's Father's Name:
Spouse's Father's Titles and Terms:
Reference ID: 238
GS Film number: 2316241
Digital Folder Number: 004820768
Image Number: 00348
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
Name: Waldo Proffitt
Titles and Terms: Jr
Event Type: Marriage
Event Date: 14 Sep 1946
Event Place: District of Columbia, United States
Age: 21
Birth Year (Estimated): 1925
Father's Name:
Father's Titles and Terms:
Mother's Name:
Mother's Titles and Terms:
Spouse's Name: Marjorie Baltzegar
Spouse's Titles and Terms:
Spouse's Age: 19
Spouse's Birth Year (Estimated): 1927
Spouse's Father's Name:
Spouse's Father's Titles and Terms:
Spouse's Mother's Name:
Spouse's Mother's Titles and Terms:
Reference ID:
GS Film number: 2293586
Digital Folder Number: 4661563
Image Number: 00312
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