Robert Novak
Biographical Sketch

Mr. Novak is a featured speaker at the NJRTL 2003 Convention Banquet.

Robert D. Novak was born February 26, 1931 in Joliet, Illinois. His first newspaper jobs were as a reporter for the Joliet Herald-News and the Champaign-Urbana Courier while attending the University of Illinois (1948-1952). Mr. Novak has a B.A. degree from the University of Illinois, from which he received the distinguished alumnus award. Mr. Novak has also received honorary doctorates from Kenyon College and the University of Illinois.

Following service in the United States Army as a lieutenant during the Korean War (1952-1954), Mr. Novak joined the staff of the Associated Press in Omaha, Nebraska. He was transferred to Lincoln, Nebraska, and then to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he covered politics and the state legislature in both places. In 1957, the AP transferred him to Washington, D.C. where he began covering congress.

He joined the Washington bureau of the Wall Street Journal in 1958, as its senate correspondent and political reporter, become chief congressional correspondent for the Journal in 1961.

On May 15, 1963, Mr. Novak teamed up with the late Rowland Evans, Jr., then congressional correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune, to write Inside Report, a political column published four times a week. Since 1966, the Chicago Sun Times has been the home newspaper to the column. On May 15, 1993, Mr. Evans retired from the column; however, Mr. Novak continues to write the column three times a week, which is carried by over 150 newspapers through Creators Syndicate.

One of longest-running syndicated columns in the nation, Inside Report has always been based on hard reporting. For over a quarter of a century, both Novak and Evans have not only criss-crossed the nation regularly covering politics, but have also traveled abroad to report wars, revolutions, and international conferences around the globe.

Mr. Novak has covered great events and interviewed world leaders in every part of the world. His 1978 trip to China included an exclusive interview with Deng Tsiao-Peng that opened the way for normalization of United States and Chinese relations.

Mr. Novak produces a twice-monthly newsletter, the Evans-Novak Political Report. Mr. Novak has written for most of the nation's periodicals and is currently a contributing editor for Readers Digest.