Spring 2008 Issue
End Note
Tenney Lehman: Inspirational Editor and ‘Warm Heart’ of the Nieman Foundation
 Nieman staff member Kettee Boling (left) and Tenney Lehman on the patio of Lippmann House. |
Tenney Lehman, executive director of the Nieman Foundation and an editor of Nieman Reports, died on January 7th of congestive heart failure at a nursing home in Brookline, Massachusetts. She was 90. Tenney began working at the foundation in 1967 on a temporary assignment and was formally invited to join the staff in 1968; she retired in 1985. On hearing of her death, some of the fellows who knew her well shared remembrances.
To some of us in the class of 1979, especially the youngest, Peggy Engel and me, both 26 then, Tenney Lehman was something of a surrogate mother. I had first met her while on my maiden trip to the United States in the summer of 1977 at the old Nieman house on Trowbridge Street, when Tenney, whose maiden name was Kelley, encouraged this young Northern Irishman to apply for a fellowship. Tenney was to meet me in Dublin in the spring of 1978, where she and her husband, Tom, were on holiday, to tell me in person that I had won my Nieman Fellowship. In celebration, I had the proud pleasure to show Tenney and Tom around the beautiful campus of my alma mater, Trinity College.
My next meeting with this very gentle and kind lady was when she personally met me at Logan Airport late one steamy August evening. Two weeks later she set up meetings in her beloved Martha’s Vineyard with the octogenarian Henry Beetle Hough, editor of the Vineyard Gazette. I will never forget her thoughtfulness. She was very generous to this young Ulsterman, who had some culture shock in those early days, later hosting me at her home on Boxing Day and helping with my tour of the South during Harvard’s reading period in January, setting up meetings with Niemans en route.
When I taught a course at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School, Tenney came to hear my guest lecturer at the last class, my friend Seamus Heaney, who read some of his poetry and who Tenney much admired. After that Nieman year, I went to the Carnegie Endowment in New York but found times to return to Cambridge—like many, I had “withdrawal symptoms” after my Harvard year—and would meet with Tenney. She came to my wedding in Toronto in 1984, and we tried to keep in touch regularly. Several of our class, Peggy Simpson, Peggy Engel, Kat Harting, and Nancy Day visited Tenney in her assisted living facility in Cambridge some years ago, during a Nieman reunion. She cared little about her own problems and was always interested in others. Curator Jim Thomson was the public and intellectual face of the Nieman Foundation; Tenney was its warm heart. —Michael McDowell, NF ’79
In our 1979 class, there were four women. I think it was a record number back then, as Curator Jim Thomson was working hard to expand the number of women Niemans. The four of us—Peggy Simpson, Kat Harting, Nancy Day, and I—decided to devote an entire issue of Nieman Reports to women’s issues in journalism. Tenney, then its editor, was entirely supportive of this takeover and cheered us on as we made efforts to include every woman who had won the award previously. I think we dedicated the issue to Agnes Wahl Nieman, because so few people outside the circle knew that it was a woman who started and funded the fellowships.
Tenney was the warmest friend you could have in Cambridge. Her passion for words, birds, gardens—but most of all Nieman Fellows—was legendary. We believed she secretly liked our class best, a fiction undoubtedly believed by every class she touched. I will miss her Christmas letters and talking baseball with her. Next time I’m in Cooperstown, I’m going to look for the glove her namesake grandfather, a lefty pro player, developed.
Tenney was a big reason the Nieman Fellowships are so beloved by several generations of journalists. —Margaret Engel, NF ’79
Tenney Lehman was such a grand lady. Remember that easy smile and twinkle in her eyes? It reminded you that she knew more than she let on but wasn’t giving away any secrets. Tenney was New England to the core, wise, kind, fun, smart. She was den mother and mentor and, over wine at a North End restaurant, drinking buddy as well. When I look back on my Nieman year, I will always see the face of Tenney Lehman. —David Lamb, NF ’81
It was during my interview for a Nieman Fellowship when Tenney Lehman’s warmth and compassion first became apparent to me. That was also the first time I had ever met her. The selection committee that year included Robert Maynard, then publisher of the Oakland Tribune, and Maynard was throwing out questions fast and furiously about my civil rights coverage. I realized my interview was lasting longer than most, and I wondered, “Is he trying to knock me out of competition?” Then I happened to glance over at Tenney and got the only smile from the group—and a warm, welcoming one it was. I felt calmer. Finally, when the interview ended, I am happy to say, Maynard leaped out of his chair and hugged me.
Tenney was a unique woman, and I thoroughly enjoyed her friendship. After my Nieman year, while I was working in Washington, she happened to be in town, and I invited her for dinner. We had fun that evening, comparing New England and Southern food, plants, cooking and other interesting differences. I will never forget Tenney. She was thoughtful, much loved, and very dear.
—Kathryn Johnson, NF ’77
Tenney was the inspiration for the [Summer 1979] issue of Nieman Reports devoted to women in journalism. Those of us in our class were among those who worked on the issue and, at least in my case, wrote a retrospective article about my coverage of the women’s movement and my own observations about the barriers facing women who wanted to be hard news reporters. That article was among those chosen as the best in the half-century of writing for Nieman Reports, and I always hoped Tenney got the credit due her, for that and much more.
She might have looked the genteel New England lady but, in my mind, she was ahead of the curve in spotting news and in helping make good articles happen. She was a bastion of good sense, humor and a sort of serenity during our somewhat chaotic Nieman year. I also thought that she grew, with us, in confronting those bumps in the road. —Peggy Simpson, NF ’79
As with Michael McDowell, it was Tenney Lehman who told me I had won the Nieman. The call reached me in the Senate Press Gallery in 1978, and I closed the door to one of the old telephone booths in the gallery as Tenney told me that Harvard was offering me a Nieman Fellowship and wanted to know if I would accept.
“Sweet Jesus, yes!,” I replied (or words to that effect).
What I recall most is Tenney’s gentle admonition that I refrain from telling anyone until the official announcement. Sorry, Tenney, but within 24 hours I had told the known universe.
Rest in Peace.
—Frank Van Riper, NF ’79
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