Central Railroad, becoming a director of the railroad company in 1954. Political supporter Pulliam was an active supporter of General Dwight D. Eisenhower's bid for U.S. president and served as a delegate to the 1952 Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, where General Eisenhower was named the Republican Party's presidential nominee. However, Pulliam was less willing to endorse Barry Goldwater's candidacy against President Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 presidential race. Well known as a political conservative, Pulliam also wrote and published a syndicated domestic-affairs column called "Window on the Right" during the 1960s. In addition, Pulliam was an outspoken advocate of freedom of the press. Death and legacy Pulliam died after suffering a heart attack at his retirement home in Phoenix, Arizona, on June 23, 1975, at the age of eighty-six. His remains are interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in Lebanon, Indiana. Over a career that spanned six decades, Pulliam either owned or operated forty-six newspapers in the United States. At the time of his death, Pulliam was publisher of The Arizona Republic, the Phoenix Gazette, and owner of the Indianapolis Star, the Indianapolis News, the Muncie Star, the Muncie Press, and the Vincennes Sun Commercial. Nina (Mason) Pulliam, his widow, became president of Central Newspapers, retaining the office until 1979. She also served from 1975 to 1978 as the publisher of the Arizona Republic and the Phoenix Gazette. She stepped down as publisher of the two Arizona newspapers in 1978 and retired from Central Newspapers in 1979 at the age of seventy-three. Eugene C. and Nina Mason Pulliam were also among the founders of the Phoenix Zoo. Pulliam's son, Eugene S. Pulliam, took over as publisher of the Indianapolis Star and the Indianapolis News, the Central Newspapers company's two major newspapers in Indianapolis. In 1975, the Indianapolis Star won a Pulitzer Prize for its series on police corruption, with Eugene C. Pulliam's granddaughter, Myrta Pulliam, as a contributor. In 1991 the Indianapolis Star won another Pulitzer Prize for its investigation of medical malpractice in Indiana. On August 1, 2000, the Gannett acquired Central Newspapers, Inc., for $2.6 billion. The Eugene C. Pulliam Trust, which owned 78 percent of the company's stock, was the principal beneficiary of the transaction. As a condition of his will, Pulliam had ordered that the trust could not sell the corporation unless it was "seriously threatened" by a "substantially complete loss" of value. In a