Eugene C. Pulliam

Who was Eugene C. Pulliam?

Eugene Collins Pulliam was an American newspaper publisher and businessman who was the founder and longtime president of Central Newspapers Inc., a multi-billion dollar media corporation.

Pulliam was born in a sod dugout house in Ulysses, Kansas, the son of the Reverend Irvin Brown and Martha Ellen Pulliam, Methodist missionaries sent to plant churches in the frontier towns of western Kansas. The Pulliams moved frequently and young Eugene grew up in a variety of dusty prairie towns. Pulliam got his first taste of the newspaper business as a six-year-old paperboy selling papers to Missouri Pacific Railroad passengers at the railroad station in Chanute, Kansas.

In 1907, Pulliam entered DePauw University in Indiana. At DePauw, Pulliam was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and founded the DePauw Daily, a student newspaper. He also helped found Sigma Delta Chi.

Pulliam dropped out of college after his junior year and moved to Atchison, Kansas where he got a job at the Atchison Champion. A few months later, he received a job offer from The Kansas City Star, then the largest newspaper in the lower Midwest. He moved to Kansas City and became a reporter.