| Robert Rutherford McCormick (July 30, 1880 – April 1, 1955) was a Chicago newspaper baron and owner of the Chicago Tribune. His grandfather was Tribune-founder and former Chicago mayor Joseph Medill, and his great-uncle was the inventor and businessman Cyrus McCormick. McCormick was born in Chicago. From 1889 through 1893, he lived with his parents in London where his father Robert Sanderson McCormick was a staff secretary to Robert Todd Lincoln. In 1899, McCormick went to Yale College; he received a law degree from Northwestern University. In 1908, he co-founded the law firm that became Kirkland & Ellis. In 1911, he became the president of the Chicago Tribune. During World War I, footage of McCormick meeting with Tsar Nicholas became the first newsreel footage. On this trip, McCormick also began collecting pieces of historically significant buildings which would eventually find their way into the structure of the Tribune Tower. Politically McCormick was a leading Progressive during the Progressive Era, but he turned against the New Deal and as a conservative was an America First isolationist who strongly opposed entering World War II to rescue the the British Empire. As a publisher he was very innovative. McCormick bought a radio station in 1924 and was the first to broadcast the Indianapolis 500, the World Series, and the Kentucky Derby. Reference |  |