Tom Oliphant Biography

Tom Oliphant

Tom Oliphant joined the Boston Globe in 1968, and in his long career as Chief Washington Correspondent, covered a total of 10 Presidential campaigns. In addition to political reporting, Oliphant was one of three editors on special assignment who managed the Globe's coverage of Boston's traumatic school desegregation, reporting that was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1975. He has also won the writing award given by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He has appeared on ABC's "'Nightline," "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer," "Face The Nation," "The Today Show," "Good Morning America," and "CBS This Morning." He has been named one of the country's Top Ten political writers and one of Washington's fifty most influential journalists by Washington Magazine.

In 1989, he added columnist to this resume and continued with a twice weekly column until retiring from the daily news business in 2005.  He immediately embarked on a true labor of love, Praying for Gil Hodges, a memoir of the 1955 World Series and his family’s love of the Brooklyn Dodgers. 

Oliphant is a New York native, a product of La Jolla High School in California, and a 1967 graduate of Harvard. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, CBS correspondent Susan Spencer, and three very talented cats, Edythe, Blanche and Veronica Jean.

The Boston Globe is New England's leading newspaper and the winner of 19 Pulitzer Prizes, including the 2007 award for National Reporting.  It has a daily circulation of more than 385,000 and a Sunday circulation of more than 585,000.  It is owned by The New York Times Company.