John D. Paulson, 1915-2001  

John D. Paulson was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota on October 1, 1915.  He was the son of a newspaper  man.  In 1939 Gerald Movius, the Forum's legislative reporter, took a job with United States Senator Gerald Nye and Paulson became the Forum's new legislative correspondence.  He covered the 1939 and 1941 legislative sessions before joining in the war effort.  After serving four years in the U.S. Army Paulson returned to his reporting duties at the state capital in 1947.  In 1952 Paulson became the managing editor, and when his father retired in 1957 Paulson became the Forum's editor.  In 1957 the paper won the Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the tornado that destroyed a large part of north Fargo.  Paulson was a delegate to the 1972 North Dakota Constitutional Convention held in Bismarck.  In 1985, Governor Allen Olson appointed Paulson to the North Dakota Centennial Committee.

The John D. Paulson papers consist primarily of manuscripts for unpublished articles he prepared in anticipation of North Dakota's centennial celebration in 1989.  He wrote these articles after retiring from the Forum, during the years 1981 to 1985.  The articles were never published.  They cover modern North Dakota politics, reflecting Mr. Paulson's long connections with the Forum in reporting the political landscape of North Dakota since 1939.  The term "Centennial Series" appears on many of the manuscripts.  People included in the manuscripts are William Langer, William Lemke, Quentin Burdick, Usher Burdick, Mark Andrews and Judge Ronald Davies. 
 

Politics and Government