Aukofer, Frank A., 1935- .Papers, 1957-2000.Milwaukee Manuscript Collection 1896.9 cubic ft. (15 archives boxes, 2 index card boxes, and 1 oversize folder) |
ACCESS RESTRICTIONS: Some of the collection is restricted as stipulated in the Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S. Code, Section
552 (a). Researchers who would like to view boxes 14 and 15 must sign an agreement for the use of restricted There are no access restrictions on the rest of the materials, and the
collection is open to all members of the public in accordance with state law. However, the
researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming with the laws of libel, privacy, and
copyright which may be involved in the use of this collection (Wisconsin Statutes
19.21-19.39).
Literary rights are retained by Frank Aukofer until May 25, 2025.
SCOPE AND CONTENT: The Aukofer Papers comprise three series:
Biographical Information, General Correspondence, and Subject
Files.
The Biographical Information
and the General Correspondence are
chronologically arranged; the Subject Files are
filed alphabetically.
The Subject Files consist of
additional correspondence, memoranda, background information, reporter's notebooks,
videotapes, draft stories, freelance writings, and occasional clipped articles. The files
concern specific assignments as well as various professional organizations with which
Aukofer was associated. The clippings, as well as the photographs received with the
Aukofer Papers have been reserved in the unprocessed status pending donation of related
material.
The Biographical Information consists of
newspaper clippings, press releases, and other information about Aukofer and his career.
Although the overall coverage is spotty, the General
Correspondence provides a good picture of the professional and social life of
a representative Washington correspondent. The majority of the correspondence is incoming,
but there are occasional carbons of outgoing letters. Included is correspondence from the
general public and prominent individuals such Russell Baker, Ben Barkin, Julian Bond, Ron
Dellums, Tom Eagleton, Ted Kennedy, Terry Kohler, Dee Dee Myers, Vel Phillips, and William
Proxmire. The majority of the letters from such notables are quite short, and primarily of
autograph value, but some, such as one letter about Fort McCoy from F. James
Sensenbrenner, Jr., are long and detailed. (Memoranda exchanged with the editorial staff
of the Journal is filed in the Subject Files
and described below.) References to Melvin Laird, Gaylord Nelson, Clement Zablocki, and
other congressional leaders hint at the close and friendly associations a capital
correspondent develops. Many letters in the series are congratulations for various
professional awards and career milestones, perhaps the most notable of which is the
retirement cartoon from Art Wood. There are also occasional letters from personal friends
and from professional associates, as well as letters from the editors of his free lance
work such as Morris Rubin and Erwin Knoll. During the 1990s the correspondence is
dominated by letters and memoranda concerning Aukofer's association with The Freedom Forum
and the Newseum and by arrangements for numerous military media days in which he
participated. This series also contains a few frank items concerning the merger of the Journal
and the Sentinel.
Perhaps the most valuable materials in the Subject Files
are the letters and memoranda exchanged with Sig Gissler, Dick Leonard, Joe Shoquist, and
other Journal executives. These range from comments about salary to suggestions for
stories and complaints about the way in w hich particular stories were handled. Alone,
they constitute almost one box of documentation. Unfortunately, many of these messages
were communicated on unstable galley paper that had already faded before its receipt in
the Archives. Although the memoranda (as well as some draft articles on similar paper)
have been photocopied to halt their deterioration, researchers are warned that the copies
are often difficult to read. Also filed with the memoranda are runs of a variety of
internal newsletters that contain information about the editorial staff and the general
history of the paper.
Writings incorporated in the Subject Files
include scattered draft newspaper stories and clippings, freelance articles written for
the Elks Magazine, Reader's Digest, and Newsweek, draft materials for
a book on freedom of assembly and City with a Chance, and a printed copy of America's
Team. Information on this topic may also be found in correspondence with Larry
Sternig, his literary agent. The series also includes several files about Aukofer's
automobile specialization including press materials and artwork for the column "Keys
to Wheels." Also here are papers written as a student at Marquette University and
many editorial critiques of copy submitted to the Marquette Tribune by other
students.
Particularly important in this series is Aukofer's coverage of the Arthur Bremer and
Eugene Hasenfus trials, the civil rights activities of Father James Groppi, the Gulf War,
and Watergate. These files generally include reporter's notebooks, draft stories, and
weeded research materials. The Bremer research file includes a photocopy of Bremer's
manuscript diary and an artist's sketch of the trial. Among the Watergate materials is a
file of memoranda issued by Wisconsin attorney William Dixon. The Gulf War files not only
contain contemporary documentation but also information about Aukofer's postwar criticism
of the manner in which the pool system had operated. This topic is also addressed in
several interviews filmed at the Newseum that are in the collection, as well as in a
recording of Aukofer's testimony to the Senate Committee that investigated the topic in
1991. Aukofer's award-winning coverage of the abuse of government perks is represented by
a weeded sample of the detailed data he meticulously gathered about official travel.
Notes, which constitute a substantial part of the documentation in the Subject Files, vary in usefulness. They range from a
transcribed interview with Russell Baker to easily readable typed notes about the Detroit
race riot to numerous reporter's notebooks in which the information is handwritten and
sketchy. Particularly notable are numerous books concerning his coverage of Watergate and
notes on a 1971 prison interview with James Hoffa.
The Subject Files reflect Aukofer's frequent
need to put a Wisconsin spin on the news of the nation's capital, and files about Les
Aspin, Lawrence Eagleburger, Robert Froehlke, Robert Kastenmeier, Patrick J. Lucey,
William Proxmire, William Rehnquist, Charles Robb, and Toby Roth reflect this regional
perspective. The Wisconsin delegation is also documented by financial disclosure reports
submitted during the 1980s.
The Subject Files also reflect Aukofer's
leadership and participation in various professional organizations such as the National
Press Club, the National Press Foundation, and the Standing Committee of Correspondents.
Correspondence that pertained to Aukofer's official role as president of NPC has been
retained in unprocessed status pending receipt of additional material. Other prominent
journalists represented in the collection include Henry Keys and Gary MacEoin.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Frank Alexander Aukofer, former chief of
the Washington, D.C., bureau of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, perhaps
the best small newspaper bureau in the nation's Capital, was born in
Milwaukee on April 6, 1935. His parents were Herbert A. and Wanda Mary Kaminski Aukofer.
The son and grandson of printers, Aukofer followed their trade and worked his way through
college as an apprentice and journeyman compositor and linotype operator for the Milwaukee
Journal. He was also editor of the Marquette Tribune. Immediately after
graduating from the Marquette University College of Journalism in 1960, Aukofer began his
professional career as a reporter in the Journal's editorial department.
He quickly earned a reputation for his coverage of civil rights activities of
Father James E. Groppi in Wisconsin and other civil rights stories around the country. In
1966 he won a Ford Foundation fellowship at the Medill School of Journalism at
Northwestern University, where he studied civil rights and civil liberties. Among the
stories he covered were the 1965 Selma-Montgomery March, the Poor People's March in
Washington and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, and the Detroit
riots. His account of the Wisconsin civil rights movement was published as City With a
Chance (1968). In Milwaukee he won four Milwaukee Press Club writing awards and two
national awards for reporting on highway safetly. For two years he was the editor of the
Club's annual magazine, Once a Year.
In addition to his general reporting assignments Aukofer wrote regular columns about
automobiles, an interest that continued as the syndicated column, "Keys to
Wheels." Later he served as president of the Washington Automotive Press Association.
He also began an active free lance career that included working as the Milwaukee
correspondent for Newsweek for two years and writing stories for the Elks
Magazine, the Washington Post, Look, and Insight Magazine.
In 1970, then substituting as the Journal's assistant city editor,
Aukofer was assigned to the paper's Washington, D.C. bureau. In 1989 he became chief of
the bureau, replacing John W. Kole. Over 30 years in these positions he covered every
aspect of government, including Congress, the Supreme Court, the White House, and national
politics and political conventions. Stories on which he reported included Watergate, the
impeachments of President William J. Clinton and Richard M. Nixon, the Clarence Thomas
Supreme Court hearing, and the Iran-Contra hearings. In 1990 Aukofer was a part of the
first Pentagon press pool to cover the military buildup in the Persian Gulf. In January,
1991 he returned to cover the war. Aukofer has interviewed Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald
Reagan, George Bush, and Bill Clinton. In 1979 he won the National Press Club's award for
newspaper reporting by a Washington correspondent. In 1993 he won the Signa Delta Chi
Award for his coverage of government abuses. In 1986 Aukofer won Marquette's University
Merit Award; in 1992 he won the College of Journalism's By-line Award.
Aukofer also covered stories in Mexico (1982) and Central America (1983). In 1985 the Journal
sent him to Nicaragua to cover the trial of Eugene Hasenfus (1985). This coverage
won Aukofer his paper's Richard S. Davis Prize and a Pulitzer Prize nomination.
From September 1991 to 1995 Aukofer was a visiting scholar at The Freedom Forum First
Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, studying the relationship between the military
and the media. The product of this research, America's Team: the Odd Couple, was
co-authored with William Lawrence.
In addition, Aukofer has been active in numerous professional organizations. In 1978 he
served as president of the National Press Club and from 1980 to 1985 he was president and
chair of the National Press Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes
achievement in journalism. As president of the NPC, he oversaw the restoration of the
Press Club building, and he hosted 52 news luncheons, sharing the dais with President
Jimmy Carter and other world leaders. In 1974 he was elected to the panel of the Standing
Committee of Correspondents of the U.S. Congress. He also served as a member of the board
of the Washington chapter of Sigma Delta Chi. In 1992 he was elected to the exclusive
Gridiron Club.
In 1960 Aukofer married Sharlene Talatzko. They became the parents of four children:
Juliann Navarrete, Matthew P., Becky Hawryluk, and Joseph J. Aukofer retired from the Journal
Sentinel in 2000.
COLLECTION CITATION: This collection should be cited as:
RELATED COLLECTIONS:
Groppi, James, 1930- . Papers, 1964-1978.
(Milwaukee Manuscript Collection
EX and Milwaukee Tape 5)
Kole, John W. Papers, 1960-1989.
(Milwaukee Manuscript Collection
197)
Milwaukee (Wis.). Mayor. Records of the Henry W. Maier administration, 1960-1988.
(Milwaukee Series 44 and Milwaukee Tape 1235A)
Olson, Frederick I. Papers, 1941-1993. (UWM Manuscript Collection 26)
Shoquist, Joseph William. Papers, 1952-1985. (Milwaukee Manuscript Collection 145)
ACQUISITION: Presented by Frank A. Aukofer of Washington,
D.C. in 1970 through 2001 (accession numbers MCHC70-078, MCHC71-039, MCHC71-151, M91-138,
and M2001-091).
PROCESSING: Processed by cjm in 2001.
MARC RECORD SEARCH TERMS: The following terms were used in the online
bibliographic MARC record to this collection:
About the
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| Finding Aids ©2003 University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee -- All Rights
Reserved.
ABSTRACT: Papers of Aukofer, a reporter (1960-1989) and chief
(1989-2000) of the Washington, D.C. bureau of The Milwaukee Journal, later the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Included are biographical information, correspondence with
the general public, memoranda from Sig Gissler, Richard Leonard, Joseph Shoquist, and
other Journal executives, as well as subject files containing memoranda, draft
writings, clippings, reporter's notebooks, and research materials (some in recorded form).
The later concern reporting on automobiles, Arthur Bremer (Man who shot George Wallace),
Father James Groppi and the civil rights movement in Milwaukee, the trial of Eugene
Hasenfus in Nicaragua, the Persian Gulf War, Watergate, and members of the Wisconsin
congressional delegation. Other files concern The Freedom Forum, the National Press Club,
of which he was president in 1978, the National Press Foundation, and other professional
organizations.
records. Ask an archivist for details.
Aukofer, Frank A., 1935- . Papers, 1957-2000. Milwaukee Manuscript Collection 189.
Wisconsin Historical Society. Milwaukee Area Research Center. UWM Libraries.
University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee.
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Last edited on Tuesday, April 29, 2003.
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