Inducted 2026.
Visionary editor and publisher.
“Intense” and “visionary” describe Dave Lawrence, the Detroit Free Press’ executive editor (1978–1984) and publisher (1985–89). Both adjectives refer to the same thing: Dave pushed big ideas challenging the status quo, and he got stuff done, so better get on board. Often mentioned is his leadership in diversifying the newsroom. Journalists of color could be counted on less than one hand in 1978. By 1989, journalists of color constituted about 20 percent of the staff and included top decision makers. Women advanced, too. Fairness mattered to Dave. He became beloved for personalized staff connections, often via blue-Sharpied comments on tearsheets, known as “Dave Raves.” Dave’s decade in Detroit changed newspaper technology—from hot type to cold, from typewriters to computers, from gray pages to multicolored ones.
Among the largest U.S. dailies, the Free Press was an early adopter. In a time when readers still looked to local papers for basics such as TV listings, his team used technology to get stories and photos to press faster. As publisher, his Sunday columns educated readers on the “why” of good journalism while explaining or owning up to editorial decisions that seemed to fall short. In his last three years, he often had to defend Knight-Ridder’s decision to declare the Free Press a “failing” newspaper and to seek a Joint Operating Agreement with The Detroit News. At stake were the life of a newspaper and the livelihoods of 2,200 employees. Born in New York City to a newspaperman and his wife, Dave grew up in a family of nine children, his early years spent on a farm in upstate New York, his teenage and college years in Florida. After Detroit, he was the Miami Herald’s publisher for a decade before retiring to focus on child-readiness initiatives in 
Florida.