Miller, in the Pacific theater of the war. He rose to the rank of lieutenant commander in the Navy. The Jack Miller saw a considerable amount of combat against the Japanese Navy, and survived being caught in two typhoons. In early September 1945, Royster was among the first group of American officers to see the ruins of the Japanese city of Nagasaki, which had been destroyed by the second atomic bomb dropped on Japan. After the war ended Royster resumed his career at The Wall Street Journal. In 1953 Royster was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing. He served as president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1965–66. He retired as editor of The Wall Street Journal in 1971 and began writing his popular weekly column Thinking Things Over, which he continued until the handicaps of old age forced him to discontinue it in 1986. He was awarded a second Pulitzer Prize, in 1984, for Commentary. After his retirement from the Journal, he became the Kenan Professor of Journalism and Public Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Honors When he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, the citation read: For over half a century, as a journalist, author, and teacher, Vermont Royster illuminated the political and economic life of our times. His common sense exploded the pretensions of "expert opinion," and his compelling eloquence warned of the evils of society loosed from its moorings in faith. The voice of the American people can be heard in his prose—honest, open, proud, and free. Other awards he received include Distinguished Service Award, Sigma Delta Chi, 1958; William Allen White Award, University of Kansas, 1971; the 1975 Gerald Loeb Memorial Award for excellence in business and financial reporting; Elijah Lovejoy Award 1976; North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame, 1980. In 1976, Royster received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award as well as an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Colby College. Several of the editorials he wrote are considered classics: "The Desolate Wilderness" and "And the Fair Land" are now The Wall Street Journals traditional Thanksgiving editorials, and "In Hoc Anno Domini" appears every Christmas. Personal life Royster married Frances Claypoole in 1937, and the couple had two daughters, Francis and Eleanor. He died on July 22, 1996, and she followed two years later on April 23, 1998, both in