Nina Mason Pulliam

Nina Mason Pulliam (September 19, 1906 – March 26, 1997) was an American journalist, author, and newspaper executive in Arizona and Indiana, where she was also well known as a philanthropist and civic leader. Pulliam began her career as a journalist in Indiana and worked with her husband, Eugene C. Pulliam, as founding secretary-treasurer and a member of the board of Central Newspapers, Incorporated, the media holding company he established in 1934. Following her husband's death in 1975, she served as president of the company until her retirement, in 1979, and as publisher of two of the company's newspapers, the Arizona Republic and the Phoenix Gazette, from 1975 to 1978. She also wrote a series of articles that were published in North American newspapers and later compiled into several books.

During her lifetime and through the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, which was established after her death in 1997, Pulliam contributed to numerous philanthropic projects to support her varied interests in education, animals, nature, the outdoors, and Native American art and culture, especially programs in Arizona and Indiana. A major initiative of her charitable trust is the Nina Mason Pulliam Legacy Scholars program. Other recipients of her philanthropy in Arizona include the Phoenix Zoo, Heard Museum, Desert Botanical Garden, Arizona Humane Society, Phoenix's Burton Barr Central Library, the Arizona Recreation Center for the Handicapped, and a walking trail in the Grand Canyon National Park. Indiana projects have included the Nina Mason Pulliam EcoLab at Marian University and the Nina Mason Pulliam Indianapolis Special Collections Room at the Indianapolis Public Library's Central Library.