Elmer Wilson Lower was an American journalist and president of ABC News

ABC News

ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...

 from 1963 to 1974.

Lower received his bachelor's degree in journalism

Journalism

Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...

 from the University of Missouri

University of Missouri

The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...

 in 1933. Afterwards, he worked for 20 years for a variety of newspapers in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Missouri, specializing in political beats.

Lower was named president of ABC News in 1963. During his tenure, he was responsible for hiring Peter Jennings

Peter Jennings

Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings, CM was a Canadian American journalist and news anchor. He was the sole anchor of ABC's World News Tonight from 1983 until his death in 2005 of complications from lung cancer...

, Ted Koppel

Ted Koppel

Edward James "Ted" Koppel is an English-born American broadcast journalist, best known as the anchor for Nightline from the program's inception in 1980 until his retirement in late 2005. After leaving Nightline, Koppel worked as managing editor for the Discovery Channel before resigning in 2008...

, Frank Reynolds

Frank Reynolds

Frank James Reynolds was an American television journalist for ABC and CBS News.He was a New York-based anchor of the ABC Evening News from 1968 to 1970 and later as the Washington D.C.-based co-anchor of World News Tonight from 1978 until his death in 1983...

, and Sam Donaldson

Sam Donaldson

Samuel Andrew "Sam" Donaldson, Jr. is a reporter and news anchor, serving with ABC News from 1967 to the present, best known as the network's White House Correspondent and as a panelist and later co-anchor of the network's Sunday Program "This Week."-Early life and career:Donaldson was born in El...

. In that time, the news division grew from 250 to 750 employees, and the evening news expanded from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. He joined the faculty of his alma mater in 1978, and was appointed appointed dean of the School of Journalism

Missouri School of Journalism

The Missouri School of Journalism at University of Missouri in Columbia, claims to be the oldest formal journalism school in the world. Founded in 1908, only the Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme de Paris established in 1899 may be older...

for the 1982-1983 academic year. Lower was honored with a lifetime achievement Emmy award in 1975.

Lower died on July 26, 2011 at the age of 98 in Vero Beach, Florida.