MEMO FROM THE EDITOR
MEMO from the Editor John McGrath, 1920-1987 When John McGrath retired as associate editor of The Progressive in 1980, he had, over the course of a third of a century, performed almost every task...
...No one else was home, and as we left I reminded him to lock his front door...
...Their five children—Sean, Deirdre, Maura, Sheila, and Kevin—all held jobs here at one time or another, and so did John's mother...
...Someone might come by who needs a place to stay...
...When The Progressive was revived as a monthly in January 1948, he began to assume the varied and diverse responsibilities he would carry over the years...
...dealt with printers and suppliers...
...He established and directed our editorial-internship program...
...John McGrath died of cancer on December 17...
...But The Progressive, buffeted by postwar inflation, was in even more trouble than usual...
...He joined the staff in the spring of 1947 to handle circulation and advertising...
...There's a reason: In November, a Federal appeals court ordered Gillam released pending the outcome of his appeal...
...The Progressive was a weekly then, and McGrath's job was to help it make a critical transition: After decades of serving mainly a state and regional readership, it was reaching out to a national audience...
...MEMO from the Editor John McGrath, 1920-1987 When John McGrath retired as associate editor of The Progressive in 1980, he had, over the course of a third of a century, performed almost every task involved in publishing this magazine...
...It was, by the standards of today's upwardly mobile stri vers, a particularly inauspicious career move...
...We extend our condolences to his family and all the others who will miss him—including a generation of The Progressive's readers, who may not even have known his name...
...And he could fix the furnace in the basement and tinker, in those pre-computer days, with our ancient addressing machines...
...he gave up a secure job with a Chicago publishing firm to cast his lot with a magazine that was perpetually and incorrigibly in the red...
...He planned, wrote, and designed our circulation promotion...
...coordinated our fund-raising efforts...
...Recently, I've been hearing from readers whose letters to Gillam are being returned with the stamp No Forwarding Address...
...Though his byline rarely appeared in the magazine, he dealt with writers, edited their manuscripts, and wrote occasional editorials for the Comment section...
...Oh, we never lock it," he said...
...Box 246, Madison, WI 53701...
...In the 1960s, McGrath's work gradually shifted over to the editorial side...
...produced article reprints and special supplements...
...answered subscriber queries...
...Last summer, after Gillam Kerley had begun serving a prison term for refusing to register for the draft, we published his address in this space so that readers who were so inclined could correspond with him at the Leavenworth Federal Correctional Institution...
...prepared production schedules...
...In recent years, after his retirement from The Progressive, he helped set up a program to feed the hungry and homeless...
...Within a few months of McGrath's arrival, the weekly was forced to suspend publication and he was out of work...
...The McGraths were friends, counselors, and foster parents to dozens of displaced or troubled teenagers...
...Last year, when it was our sad duty to drive to Chicago for Sid Lens's funeral service, I picked up John at his house...
...Throughout his years of service to The Progressive, John McGrath also engaged in an active community life...
...Gillam continues his work as executive director of the Committee Against Registration and the Draft, and correspondence (as well as contributions for the committee's work) may be addressed to him at: P.O...
...He writes about his prison experience on the Last Word page of this issue...
...John McGrath grew up in Michigan, hitchhiked to New York after high school, and worked as a truckdriver, housepaint-er, and handyman...
...He worked tirelessly against racism and other forms of discrimination...
...He maintained a particularly close relationship with two of The Progressive's mainstays, Milton Mayer and Sidney Lens...
...He was a pacifist by lifelong conviction, a Catholic radical long before Vatican II, and a conscientious objector in World War II, working with Japanese-American internees...
...John's talented wife, MaryJean, designed covers and drew illustrations for the magazine...
...Over the years, the whole McGrath family worked, formally or informally, for The Progressive...
...He even put in a mercifully brief stint on the editorial staff of Time magazine...
Vol. 52 • February 1988 • No. 2
