Marshall Field V

Background

Marshall Field V was born on May 13, 1941 in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States to Marshall Field IV and Joanne (Bass) Field.

Education

Field graduated from Harvard College in 1963 with Bachelor's degree.

Career

After graduation Field took a job at Random House, the New York book publisher, before going to the Herald-Tribune. After his father's death the Field heir began an intensive course of training to prepare him to take over the reins of the Chicago Sun-Times and Daily News. In Chicago, Field was supposed to undergo a five-year, department-by-department training program to prepare him to lead the Field newspapers. He completed the training in four years and in 1969 was named publisher of the Sun-Times and Daily News. At twenty-eight he was the youngest publisher of a major newspaper in the United States.

Field, who described himself as much more of a manager than a writer or reporter, expanded his papers' reputations even more than his father and grandfather had done. Under Field's ownership the Sun-Times won six Pulitzer Prizes and became a well-respected newspaper with a national reputation. In 1977 the paper embarked on one of journalism's most controversial investigations when it bought a Chicago tavern, the Mirage, which was run by a team of undercover journalists. The resulting series of stories documented the corruption among city employees that victimized small-business owners. In 1980 Field broke new ground when he named James Hoge, editor of the SunTimes and Daily News, to the post of publisher of the Sun-Times - the first person to hold that title who was not a member of the Field family. He closed the Daily News in 1978 because it lost too much money - over $11 million in its last year of operation, reports Weston. In 1984 Field and his half-brother and co-heir Frederick made the decision to sell the Sun-Times to Australian publisher Rupert Murdoch. Marshall Field V, in deciding with his half brother to sell the Sun-Times and liquidate Field Enterprises, indicated that his greater responsibility was to the family, not its newspapers.

Achievements

• Field is a brilliant publisher and business executive who took over the management and direction of the Chicago SunTimes on the death of his father, Marshall Field IV, in 1965. He was the third and last generation of Fields to direct the Chicago newspapers. He established a reputation for himself as a formidable businessman, willing to make difficult decisions.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Caumsett: The Marshall Field III Gold Coast Estate

    (Marshall Field III was 28 years of age and one of the ric...)

Politics

Field is a very liberal Republican.

Personality

Field is an affable and direct man.

Connections

Field married Joan Best Connelly in 1964. They divorced in 1969 and in 1972 he married Jamee Beckwith Jacobs. He has one son Marshall Field VI from the first marriage and three children from the second marriage, Jamee Christine, Stephanie Caroline, Abigail Beckwith.

Father:

Marshall Field. IV

Mother:

Joanne (Bass) Field

Spouse:

Jamee Beckwith Jacobs

Son:

Marshall Field. VI

Daughter:

Jamee Christine Field

Daughter:

Stephanie Caroline Field

Daughter:

Abigail Beckwith Field

ex-spouse:

Joan Best Connelly

References

• Contemporary Authors: Vol 182