William Woo
American journalist (1936-2006)
William Franklin Woo (吳惠連, pinyin: Wú Huìlián; October 4, 1936 – April 12, 2006) was the first Chinese American to become editor of a major U.S. daily newspaper.
Woo was born in Shanghai to Kyatang Woo and American Elizabeth Hart, who met in the early '30s as graduate students at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. His parents divorced after World War II, and Woo and his mother moved to the United States in 1946 and settled in Kansas City, Missouri with her adoptive father.
Woo attended the University of Kansas and joined The Kansas City Times in 1957. From 1962 to 1996, Woo held a variety of posts at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, founded by Joseph Pulitzer. In 1986, Woo became the first chief editor of the paper who was not named Joseph Pulitzer (there had been three). Joseph Pulitzer Jr., who had been Woo's mentor, died in 1995, and his half-brother, Michael Pulitzer, took over leadership of the company. In July 1996, Woo resigned under pressure to provide more bottom line - oriented leadership.
In September 1996, Woo became the Lorry I. Lokey visiting professor of professional journalism at Stanford University, a post he held until his death.
The public source identifies “William Woo” as american journalist (1936-2006). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around William, American and journalist.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8020522. VIAF identifies the subject as 51136365. The Library of Congress control number is n2007025224. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1936, 2006, 1946 and 1957.
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This entry incorporates text from “William Woo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.