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Deborah Howell (Washington, DC) is currently the Ombudsman for the Washington Post. She is a native of San Antonio, TX, and her path in life probably was set when her parents met in a newsroom. Her father, Henry Howell, a longtime Texas newsman, was a newspaper reporter and editor and longtime broadcaster and news director of WOAI radio and TV. Her mother, Mary Dell Williams, was the daughter of homesteading ranchers and the editor of her high school newspaper. Deborah became a reporter and editor, first at her high school newspaper and then at the Daily Texan at The University of Texas, where she earned a journalism degree (BJ ‘62). She was a reporter at the Austin American-Statesman, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times and the Minneapolis Star. She became the city editor at the Star and then the managing editor and editor of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. She was the Washington Bureau chief and editor of Newhouse News Service from 1990 to 2005.
While the editor in St. Paul, the Pioneer Press had seven Pulitzer finalists and two winners. Newhouse News Service has had three Pulitzer finalists and one winner. Deborah also supervised Religion News Service and a minority scholarship program for Newhouse Newspapers.
She is the wife of C. Peter Magrath, former president of three universities (Minnesota, Missouri and SUNY-Binghamton) and the National Association of State Colleges and Land Grant Universities and now senior presidential adviser to The College Board. Howell has 8 stepchildren, 14 grandchildren and two great-grandsons.