Finding aid for the Thomas Vail Papers

Biography of Thomas Vail

Thomas Vail, son of attorney Herman L. Vail and Delia B. White, both members of prominent Cleveland families, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, June 23, 1926. Vail was educated at University School in Cleveland and Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts and graduated cum laude from Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, in 1948. He briefly considered a diplomatic career before returning to Cleveland in 1949 to join a family business, The Forest City Publishing Company, as a police reporter for its afternoon newspaper, the Cleveland News. Vail worked as a reporter and political editor for four years until 1957 when he decided to learn the business side of the newspaper publishing industry. He transferred to Forest City Publishing's morning paper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer where he worked in classified and advertising sales and as a labor negotiator for the paper.

The Plain Dealer was purchased in 1885 by real estate and mining magnate Liberty Holden, Thomas Vail's great-grandfather. Under Holden the paper moved from a daily evening paper to a morning daily and Sunday enterprise. Holden personally ran the paper's operations from 1893 to 1898, later transferring daily operations to professional managers. Upon Holden's death in 1913, ownership of the paper was placed in trust for his heirs, and eventually day to day operations were entrusted to outside professional management. This changed when Thomas Vail, at age thirty-six, assumed duties as publisher and editor of The Plain Dealer in 1963. When the Holden trustees sold The Plain Dealer to the Samuel Newhouse publishing chain in 1967, Vail remained on as publisher and editor with full editorial discretion. For the next twenty-five years Vail oversaw the transition of The Plain Dealer from the runner up publication, dominated by Scripps-Howard's Cleveland Press, to the largest daily and Sunday newspaper in Ohio. Under his leadership The Plain Dealer became a competitive publication with modernized printing and distribution systems. Vail retired from the paper in 1992.

In addition to his duties at The Plain Dealer, Vail was also active in other family interests, serving as a trustee on major family trusts. His community activities were also far ranging. He served on committees of The Cleveland Foundation and The Cleveland Clinic Foundation and was a co-founder of Cleveland Tomorrow, an organization formed in 1982 to promote economic growth in the Cleveland area. He was also president of the Cleveland Convention and active in the Visitor's Bureau and the Greater Cleveland Growth Association. On a national level Vail served on boards of the Associated Press and the Newspaper Advertising Bureau. He also served on several government commissions by presidential appointment, including the National Advisory Commission on Information during Lyndon B. Johnson's administration, and the President's Advisory Council on Private Sector Initiatives under Ronald Reagan. As The Plain Dealer overtook The Cleveland Press as the largest daily newspaper in Ohio, Vail became the subject of stories in Time and Newsweek magazines. He appeared on "The Today Show," "Meet the Press," and other national television programs. Locally Vail's editorial policies and endorsements were crucial to the election of several Cleveland mayors, including Carl B. Stokes, George Voinovich, and Michael White. Vail was also instrumental in persuading Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes to establish Cleveland State University, a branch of the state university system, in the 1960s.

Thomas Vail married Iris W. Jennings of New York City in September 1951. There were three children of this marriage, a daughter and two sons.

Scope and Content

The Thomas Vail Papers, 1949-1998, consist of correspondence, certificates, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, publications, speech texts, and inventories.

This collection is of value to researchers studying the newspaper publishing industry, especially a regional daily and Sunday publication with strong local control regarding editorial policy, and the effects of editorial policy on the community it serves. Of interest in the correspondence series are the letters of Hubert H. Humphrey, vice president of the United States from 1963 to 1968, and United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and presidential candidate before his assassination in June 1968. The bulk of the collection consists of almost 200 speeches and introductory material that Vail presented over a span of almost thirty years that denote his interest in local business and community affairs. His "Publisher's Column," regularly published for more than a quarter century, reflects Vail's views on local, national, and international affairs, both political and humanitarian.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Access

Series VI (roll 7 of microfilm) is restricted. Consult the Curator of Manuscripts.

The researcher should also consult PG 517 Thomas Vail Photographs.

All photographs have been removed to PG 517 Thomas Vail Photographs. Audio-visual materials have been removed to the audio-visual collection.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Preferred Citation

[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4852 Thomas Vail Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

Acquisition Information

Thomas V. H. Vail, 1998.

Processing Information

Processed by Patricia Stahley and Monica Scullen in 2004.

Detailed Description of The Collection