Wiggins, James Russell Collection

Related collection

• Baker, Alan Collection (is related to)

Biographical/Historical NotesJames Russell Wiggins, a longtime editor of The Washington Post who served as United States Ambassador to the United Nations and spent his last 30 years running The Ellsworth American, a weekly newspaper in Maine, died Nov. 19, 2000, at his home in Brooklin, Me. He was 96. During his 22 years as managing editor and, later, editor and executive vice-president of The Post in the 1940's, 50's and 60's, Mr. Wiggins helped build the paper from a somewhat provincial capital daily into a national voice. A strong supporter of President Lyndon B. Johnson's policies in Vietnam, Mr. Wiggins was tapped by President Johnson to be ambassador to the United Nations in 1968, shortly before he had planned to retire from The Post. He served there for the last four months of Mr. Johnson's term. Mr. Wiggins was born in Luverne, Minn., on December 4, 1903. He worked at his hometown's weekly paper during high school, became a full-time reporter there after graduation and bought the paper when he was 22. (NYT)

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