Edward Henry Ziegner

(Aug. 8, 1920 -June 22, 1993). An Indianapolis native, Edward Henry Ziegner graduated from Shortridge High School in 1938 and attended Wabash College as well as Indiana University. He began his journalism career in 1941, but it was soon interrupted by overseas service as an antiaircraft artillery officer for the U.S. Army in World War II. After the war, Ziegner became an assistant State House reporter with the Indianapolis News. In 1953, he was put in charge of the News legislative bureau and directed it for the next 32 years, covering 27 regular sessions and seven special sessions of the General Assembly. After his retirement in 1985, Ziegner continued to write a weekly political column until 1990.

Eugene S. Pulliam, publisher of the News and the Indianapolis Star, described Ziegner as “one of the best political reporters I have ever known.” National political reporters made a point of checking in with him to find out what was going on in the state. A Democrat, Ziegner believed he was doing his job well “as long as he was getting complaints from both parties.”

Ziegner received numerous professional awards, including the American Political Science Association Award for Distinguished Public Affairs Reporting, the Indianapolis Press Club’s Newsman of the Year, and induction into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame. Indiana governors twice named Ziegner a Sagamore of the Wabash, the highest civilian honor in the state.

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