Leroy F. Aarons
| Leroy Aarons | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 8, 1933 Bronx, New York |
| Died | November 28, 2004 (aged 70) |
| Domestic partner | Joshua Boneh (1980–2004) |
| Alma mater | Brown University, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism |
Leroy "Roy" F. Aarons (December 8, 1933 – November 28, 2004) was an American journalist, editor, author, playwright, founder of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA), and founding member of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. In 2005 he was inducted into the NLGJA Hall of Fame.
Born in Bronx, NY on Dec 8, 1933, Roy Aarons graduated cum laude from Brown University and earned an MS from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. He served in the Navy and Naval Reserve, attaining the rank of lieutenant, then took a copyediting job with the New Haven Journal-Courier. The Washington Post hired him away.
Aarons remained at the Post for many years. As an editor and a national correspondent, he served as New York bureau chief and later established the paper's first Los Angeles bureau. He covered major events of the 1960s and 1970s such as the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, urban riots, and government scandals.
Aarons had a front row seat when the Pentagon Papers story surfaced. As Los Angeles bureau chief, he covered California-related events in the case, including what work Daniel Ellsberg had been doing for the Rand Corporation and how he managed to remove the Pentagon Papers from Rand headquarters.
The scandal that forced a president to resign was Watergate, and the Post was the paper that broke the story. Because of his role at the paper during the Watergate reporting, Aarons was hired as an accuracy consultant for the Post-centered film about the scandal, All the President's Men. He also had a bit part in the movie.
In 1981 Aarons met Israeli computer consultant Joshua Boneh at his Jewish Community Center in Washington D.C. "He followed Boneh to Israel" in 1982 where he covered the Lebanon War for Time. The two celebrated their 20th anniversary with a commitment ceremony at the same JCC where they met. Aarons joined the Oakland Tribune at the behest of his former Post colleague Robert C. Maynard. Maynard had purchased the declining Tribune—thus becoming the first black owner of a major metro paper—and recruited Roy to be its features editor.
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