The Donald S. Rubin McGraw-Hill Memorial Scholarship Fund honors the memory of a longtime executive of The McGraw-Hill Companies who passed away on Feb. 20, 2012.
McGraw-Hill established the fund with an initial gift of $75,000 and it has pledged to match any additional contributions of up to $3,000 by its employees and retirees.
CUNY J-School Dean Stephen B. Shepard, who during his 20-year tenure as editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek magazine worked closely with Rubin at McGraw-Hill, said he expects the total endowment eventually to exceed $150,000. That sum would yield an annual scholarship of about $7,500.
Rubin began his career as a sports writer, reporter, and magazine editor before serving in executive positions at McGraw-Hill. He was senior vice-president of investor relations at the time of his death.
Born in Chicago in 1934, he spent his early childhood in Moline, Ill. before his family moved to Miami in 1946. He received a full-ride scholarship to the University of Miami, where he majored in history.
While still in high school, he began working as a correspondent for the Miami Daily News and he continued at the paper through college, covering local sports under editor Stanley Woodward. “Stanley was passionate about literacy in journalism and journalism as an honorable craft. His impact on my father was profound,” said Rubin’s daughter, Laura L. Rubin.
After graduating from college cum laude in 1956, Rubin was hired by the Princeton Packet, a weekly newspaper in Princeton, N.J. From there, he got a job as a sports reporter for the Newark Star-Ledger, reuniting with his mentor, Woodward.
Rubin started at McGraw-Hill on Electrical Merchandising Week in 1959 and eventually rose to editor of the publication. In 1961, he won a Jesse H. Neal award, the most prestigious prize in trade journalism. After leaving McGraw-Hill briefly in 1972 to become executive editor of a group of medical publications in Minneapolis, he returned to the company for a corporate position. He became senior vice-president of investor relations in 1993.
Laura Rubin called the scholarship fund at the CUNY J-School “a particularly poignant legacy” for her father, one that aptly reflects his character. “My father was reverent about the power of the written word. He was at heart a reporter – always with a sheet of yellow paper folded into thirds in his breast pocket and a pen at the ready for jotting.”
Donate now to the Donald S. Rubin McGraw-Hill Memorial Scholarship Fund.
