| Leonard Downie Jr., former Executive Editor
 I
was an intern in 1964, the second year of The Washington
Post summer intern program. Another intern that year was
Bob Kaiser, who was back for his second summer. We were both
on the city staff and found ourselves competing to get the
most stories on the front page, which was easier then with
an eight-column front page and a much smaller reporting staff.
We wound up tied at the end of the summer.
We were offered, and accepted, full-time jobs at The Post,
the first of dozens of summer interns who have stayed at or
returned to The Post newsroom for the rest of their careers.
As a native Ohioan and graduate of a public university, Ohio
State, I would have had no chance, without that internship,
of being hired out of college into what was then a mostly
Ivy League Post newsroom.
I worked for many years as a local investigative reporter
before becoming an editor on the city desk. I was deputy metro
editor during the Watergate coverage, which I helped edit.
I later became assistant managing editor for metro news, London
correspondent, national news editor and managing editor before
succeeding Ben Bradlee as executive editor in 1991. For the
next seven years, Bob Kaiser, my summer intern rival, was
managing editor. As executive editor for 17 years, I valued the summer intern
program more than ever as a source of exceptional talent for
our news staff.
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