BELLAMY, PAUL (26 Dec. 1884-12 Apr. 1956), was editor of the PLAIN DEALER from 1928-54. Son of utopian author Edward Bellamy and Emma (Sanderson) Bellamy, he was born in Chicopee Falls, Mass, graduated from Harvard (1906), and worked a year on the Springfield (Mass.) Union before coming to Cleveland as a reporter for the Plain Dealer. Two years later he became the youngest city editor in the paper's history. Leaving the Plain Dealer briefly for work in Chicago and service in WORLD WAR I, Bellamy returned in 1919, was managing editor the following year, and took over editorially in 1928 until Jan. 1954, when he became editor emeritus.
Bellamy was president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1933 and helped write the Natl. Recovery Act code for newspapers. A director of the Associated Press for 18 years, he warned against excessive wartime censorship in 1943. Although he was a Democrat and knew Pres. Franklin Roosevelt, Bellamy became critical of the New Deal and the Democratic Plain Dealer endorsed Wendell Willkie in 1940. Nonetheless, Roosevelt made Bellamy head of a wartime committee formulating policies governing occupational draft deferments for federal employees.
Bellamy was a charter member of the CITY CLUB OF CLEVELAND. His first marriage, to Marguerite Scott Stark in 1908, ended in divorce in 1941 after producing 4 children: Peter, Richard K., Joan B. May, and John. Bellamy subsequently married Mrs. Mary Mitchell Henry on 21 Nov. 1941. He died in his Bratenahl home at age 72. His son, PETER BELLAMY, was a critic and columnist for the CLEVELAND NEWS and the Plain Dealer. Bellamy was buried in LAKE VIEW CEMETERY.
Finding aid for the Paul Bellamy Papers, WRHS.
Finding aid for the Paul Bellamy Photographs, Series I, WRHS.
Finding aid for the Paul Bellamy Photographs, Series II, WRHS.
Porter, Phllip W. Cleveland: Confused City on a Seesaw (1976)