Ruth Sulzberger Holmberg
Ruth Sulzberger Holmberg (born Ruth Rachel Sulzberger; March 12, 1921 – April 20, 2017) was an American newspaper publisher from the famous Ochs-Sulzberger family.
She was born in New York City to Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger and Arthur Hays Sulzberger. Her family owned and ran The New York Times. Ruth studied at Lincoln School, Brearley, and Smith College, graduating in 1943. During World War II she volunteered with the Red Cross in England and France.
In 1946 she moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, with her first husband, Ben Hale Golden. He would later become publisher of The Chattanooga Times. After he resigned in 1964, Ruth took over as publisher and led the newspaper, championing civil rights and reforms. The paper supported school integration, civil rights laws, clean-air measures, anti-corruption efforts, and a bigger role for Black residents in local government. In the 1980s she merged the paper’s back office with its rival, The News-Free Press, while keeping news and editorials separate. She served as president of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association in 1984 and joined the Associated Press board in 1987, the second woman to do so.
In 1997 Ruth and her siblings transferred ownership of The Chattanooga Times to their 13 children, who sold it to Walter E. Hussman Jr. and merged it with The News-Free Press to form the Chattanooga Times Free Press. She served on the board of The New York Times from 1961 to 1998 and supported many Tennessee arts and education organizations, including the Smithsonian, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and the Tennessee Arts Commission.
Ruth was married twice. Her first husband was Ben Hale Golden, with whom she had four children. In 1972 she married Albert William Holmberg Jr.; he helped run the Chattanooga paper and they had three stepchildren.
Ruth Sulzberger Holmberg passed away on April 20, 2017, at the age of 96.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 16:20 (CET).