Mike Waller

Mike Waller grew up in Durand, Ill., watching scores of Durand Merchant softball games and chasing foul balls with the rest of the foul-ball brigade. He graduated from Millikin University in 1963 and then spent 42 years in the newspaper business. He was a senior editor at The Courier-Journal and Lousville Times until 1978, when he joined The Kansas City Star as managing editor. He became the only journalist in the Star's history to serve in all three top newsroom positions: managing editor of The Star, managing editor of its sister paper, The Kansas City Times, and editor of The Kansas City Star and Times.

Waller became executive editor of The Hartford Courant in 1986, was named editor of The Courant in 1990 and was appointed publisher and CEO of The Courant in 1994. Three years later he was named publisher and CEO of The Sun in Baltimore and senior vice president of the Times Mirror Co. During his career, he worked on newspapers that won dozens of national awards, including eight Pulitzer Prizes. Waller retired in 2002 and now lives with his wife Donna on Hilton Head Island, where he plays an average of nearly 300 rounds of golf a year.