John Joseph O'Neill (journalist)

John Joseph O'Neill (1889–1953), of the New York Herald Tribune, along with William L. Laurence of the New York Times. Howard Blakeslee of AP, Gobind Behari Lal of Universal Service and David Dietz of Scripps-Howard, won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Reporting "for their coverage of science at the tercentenary of Harvard University."^[1][2]

He was a self-taught journalist whose formal education did not go beyond public schooling.^[1] He is also the author of Prodigal genius; the life of Nikola Tesla (1944), which was published in 18 editions in German and English.^[3] and several other non-technical books on 20th century science. In 1953 he observed a feature on the Moon, on the western shore of Mare Crisium, which he interpreted as a giant natural bridge, but it turned out to be an illusion. Now this illusion is known as O'Neill's Bridge.^[4][5]

He died at his home in Freeport, New York on August 30, 1953.^[6]

References

1. Brennan, Elizabeth A.; Clarage, Elizabeth C. (1999). Who's Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 560. ISBN 978-1573561112. Retrieved June 20, 2015.
2. "The Pulitzer Prizes – 1937 Winners". The Pulitzer Prizes. Columbia University. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
3. WorldCat Identities
4. "O'Neill's Bridge". The-Moon Wiki. 2018. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
5. Chu A.; Paech W.; Weigand M. (2012). "2a - Mare Crisium". The Cambridge Photographic Moon Atlas. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139095709.006. ISBN 9781107019737.
6. Written at Freeport, New York. "John Joseph O'Neill, New York Newspaperman". The Evening Star. Washington, D.C. Associated Press. August 31, 1953. p. 16. Retrieved September 30, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.