(Sept. 12, 1969-Oct. 29, 2018). Political columnist, Matthew Tully was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Gary and Portage, Indiana. He was a graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism. Tully joined the in 2002 after reporting about the U.S. Senate for five years for Congressional Quarterly. At the , Tully initially covered Indianapolis City-County government and later Mitch Daniels’ first campaign for governor.
In 2005, Tully was appointed to be the newspaper’s political columnist, a position that would establish him as Indiana’s premiere voice in local, state, and national politics for more than a decade. He wrote more than 2,000 columns and built a deep and loyal base of readers. Tully, named Indiana Journalist of the Year in 2008, earned a reputation as a fair-minded but rigorous commentator.
In 2009, Tully began reporting on the many complex challenges facing on Indianapolis’ southside. In a series of more than 30 columns, most published on ’s front page, Tully introduced students to students and teachers fighting to overcome severe obstacles to learning. His work inspired the community to donate almost $100,000 to assist the school. The project also prompted the newspaper to launch the Our Children, Our City initiative, which raised millions of dollars and recruited thousands of mentors and tutors to assist children in Central Indiana. Tully’s work on the project earned him the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism in 2010, and he wrote a book about his experiences at the school, .
In 2016, Tully was diagnosed with cancer; two years later the disease claimed the life of the still-young husband, father, and journalist. Tully was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 2019. “I’m a Hoosier at heart, to my core,” Tully wrote in a column. His readers loved him for it.
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