Robert Schulman papers, 1936-2008

Journalist, media critic, television commentator, and KING TV documentary producer Robert Schulman was born in New York City on July 7, 1916. Both of his parents, Rebecca Yuster and Samuel Schulman, were Romanian immigrants. Schulman graduated from New York University with degrees in English and political science, and then from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism with his Master’s degree.

Schulman’s first job following his graduation from Columbia was at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which later became the St. Louis Star-Times. He also wrote plays and for radio programs in St. Louis before he was drafted into the army in 1942. After the war, he returned to St. Louis until 1951, when he moved to Chicago to work for Time magazine. In 1953, he moved to Seattle as the Regional News Bureau Chief for Time, Life, and other magazines owned by the company in the Pacific Northwest. He remained in that position until 1959, when he became the Director of Special Features for King Broadcasting Company. In this position, Schulman produced television documentaries and on-air editorials about civic issues in the Seattle area. Schulman also produced a documentary, called The Hundred Years, for the University of Washington’s centennial celebration in 1961.

In 1968, Schulman moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where he worked as a writer for the Sunday Magazine and for the WHAS television and radio station providing a one-person commentary every evening on the news. He also wrote a media monitoring column for the Louisville Times and the Sunday Courier-Journal. Schulman briefly moved to New York City in 1981 to work as the managing editor for the Inside Story news program on National Public Television, but later returned to Louisville and to WHAS. It was at this time that he also began to teach sociology classes as the first urban specialist-in-residence at the University of Louisville.

In addition to his professional work, Schulman was also active in community organizations. During his time in Seattle, Shulman served as the president of the Seattle Municipal Art Commission and as a board member for the Seattle Family Society, the Community Psychiatric Clinic, the State Art Commission, the Governor’s Conference on Community Mental Health, and the Seattle Committee on Alcoholism.

Schulman married his first wife, Eleanor, in 1943. They had one daughter, Rebecca. The couple later divorced, and Schulman married Louise Tachau in 1976. Robert Schulman died on January 6, 2008, at the age of 91.