A.E.P. “Ed” Wall, center, then-editor of Chicago’s archdiocesan newspaper, looks over an issue coming off the press in this 1977 Chicago Catholic file photo. He also was a former editor-in-chief of Catholic News Service. (CNS photo/Chicago Catholic)
By Catholic News Service
ORLAND PARK, Ill. — Arthur E. P. “Ed” Wall, a veteran journalist who worked spent many years in the secular press and the Catholic press, died Jan. 18 in Orland Park. He was 94.
Wall, who used A. E. P. Wall as his byline, was a former director and editor-in-chief of Catholic News Service. He held the top post at NC News Service, as it was called in those days, from 1972 to 1976.
“Ed Wall was a great journalist and editor. He had a peripatetic and amazing career that took him to Chicago, Honolulu, Washington and places in between. He was a visionary who had a large impact everywhere he served,” Tony Spence, director and editor-in-chief of CNS from 2004 to 2016, told CNS in an email Jan. 21.
His early journalistic career in the 1960s included service as managing editor of The Honolulu Advertiser, editor of the Hilo (Hawaii) Tribune-Herald and Sunday editor of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
In Hawaii, Wall also was active in community affairs, having been chairman of the lay board of Marianist-run Chaminade University in Honolulu and founding chairman of the Hawaii State Educational TV Commission.
“Ed was a great editor and writer, innovative executive, witty and considerate friend and courageous battler against the rare disease (multiple system atrophy) which limited his mobility but not his mind,” said Tom Lorsung, who retired as CNS director and editor-in-chief at the end of 2003, after a career at CNS which began three decades earlier.
“When Ed arrived at the then-NC News Service, the daily report was mimeographed and mailed to clients, but he established a ‘wire’ connection with clients,” Lorsung recalled in an email to CNS. “Ed was the first head of CNS to negotiate a contract with The Newspaper Guild.” Now called The NewsGuild, the union still represents CNS reporters and photographers.
Turns out Wall was no stranger to mimeographing the news report — he started out doing this for his own neighborhood papers in the 1930s. But he easily adapted to new technology and was producing his own online paper in the 2000s. He set type by hand using his boyhood Kelsey printing press and became a desktop newspaper publishing enthusiast.
He spent his last years in Orland Park, with his daughter and son-in-law. The most wonderful title he ever received, he said, was “Grandpa.”
His Orland Park years were a time of diminishing activity because of his multiple system atrophy, known as MSA. But during that time, he wrote articles for secular and religious publications and promoted awareness of the disease.
Wall was born March 12, 1925, in Jamestown, New York. He was baptized in the Methodist Episcopal Church in Celoron, New York.
While attending the University of Miami, he became a Miami Herald editorial clerk. He volunteered for the Marine Corps at 17 and was given a medical discharge a few months later. He returned to the Herald and was soon promoted to reporter and copy editor. One of his assignments was to write a weekly mini-newspaper for overseas military personnel.
Before helming the NC News Service, he was editor of The Catholic Review, Baltimore’s archdiocesan newspaper. After NC News, he became editor of the Chicago Catholic, the newspaper of the Chicago Archdiocese, and its predecessor, The New World.
His newspaper jobs over his long career included editor of the Central Florida Episcopalian; rewrite reporter for the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph; copy editor for the Worcester (Massachusetts) Telegram; reporter for the Peoria Journal; and editor of a national labor paper.
He was author of “The Spirit of Cardinal Bernardin” and “The Big Wave,” a contributor to “If I Were Pope,” and editor-in-chief of the American Catholic Who’s Who.
Wall served as secretary of the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association; trustee of St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore; and a director of Our Sunday Visitor and Noll Printing Co.
He also was on the board of directors of the Florida Catholic newspapers, serving the Miami Archdiocese and other Florida dioceses. He also was president of the International Federation of Catholic Press Agencies, a member of the board of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida and a life member of three organizations — NAACP, International Order of St. Luke the Physician and Society of Mary.
At the time of his death, Wall was a member of the Chicago Headline Club, National Press Club, Overseas Press Club and Society of Professional Journalists. He also had been a longtime member of the American Civil Liberties Union, previously serving on its board in Brevard County, Florida.
Wall’s honors include a doctorate from what is now Dominican University, as well as the St. Francis de Sales Award, which is the highest award the Catholic Press Association presents to an individual for his/her “outstanding contributions to Catholic journalism.”
Other honors include the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith award for “outstanding efforts toward making the ecumenical spirit a living reality,” and Florida Writer of the Year award from the Space Coast Writers Conference.
Wall’s wife, Marcella, also known as Sally, died in Illinois in 2002. He will be interred beside her in Gerry Cemetery in New York.
