Weeks after retirement, longtime Miami Herald Editorial Page Editor Nancy Ancrum dies at 67
Miami Herald Editorial Page Editor Nancy Ancrum, who kept a watchful eye on Florida governors and South Florida leaders, gave voice to those who had been silenced and guided her team to two Pulitzer Prizes, died Friday after a long illness. She was 67.
Community leaders and colleagues on Saturday reflected on a Miami without Ancrum, a woman who stitched together varying voices in search of our community’s moral center.
THE PEOPLE’S FORUM
Franklin Sirmans, director of the Pérez Art Museum Miami, said he cherishes the welcoming embrace Ancrum, also a native New Yorker, gave him when he took charge of PAMM in 2015.
“She truly believed that people’s opinions counted and that people needed to be heard and that there could be an open dialogue and conversation between people who might disagree but at least could respect each other enough through words,” Sirmans said. “Now, more than ever, we think about being able to have difficult conversations and she was somebody who led that charge for a decade that she was head of editorials. It’s incredible. What a legacy.”
LIFE AFTER RETIREMENT
Ancrum on Dec. 31 retired, she said, “from the best job I ever had.” She’d led the Herald’s editorial board — the community voice of the newspaper — for 10 years. It was the capstone of a newspaper career dating back to her young 20s.
An upbeat retirement party with her colleagues was held in mid-January in the community she had championed since arriving from Washington after starting her career with the Baltimore Evening Sun and USA Today.
Ancrum vowed to stay plugged in to the community and had said she looked forward to her new role as an “engaged citizen” with her husband,