Nelson Poynter

Nelson Poynter (1903 – 1978) was an American publisher. He was born in Sullivan, Indiana in 1903. His family moved to Florida nine years later when his father bought the St. Petersburg Times. Nelson returned to Indiana to get his B.A. from Indiana University and went on to complete a master's degree from Yale in 1927.

He worked various newspaper jobs across the country after completing his education. He began buying stock from his father in 1935, and he became an editor in 1939. He stayed in this position until his father's death in 1953 when he was appointed president. He co-founded the Congressional Quarterly with his wife, Henrietta.

He established the Poynter Fund in 1954 to honor his father. He gave generously to his two almae matres to enrich their journalism programs. His most lasting legacy was to establish the Modern Media Institute which was renamed the Poynter Institute after his death in 1978. The Poynter Institute received all of his shares in the Times Publishing Company that owns the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly. The Nelson Poynter Memorial Library, built in 1996, was built in memory of Poynter on the campus of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.

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Name	Poynter, Nelson
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Date of birth	1903
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Date of death	1978
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