James R. Shepley

Shepley was born on August 16, 1917, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.{{citation | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_slaAAAAYAAJ&q=james%20shepley | title=The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives: 1986-1990 | editor-first=Kenneth T. | editor-last=Jackson | publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons | date=1998 | page=773| isbn=978-0-684-80491-0 }} He attended Camp Hill High School in the Harrisburg area,{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/17572330/james-robinson-shepley/ | title=Wedded in Maryland | newspaper=Harrisburg Telegraph | date=April 5, 1937 | page=10 | via=Newspapers.com}} from where he was graduated in 1935.

He then was admitted to nearby Dickinson College, where he was in the class of 1939.{{cite news | url=http://archives.dickinson.edu/alumni-magazine/dickinson-alumnus-december-1954 | title=The Hydrogen Bomb Raises Many Questions | author-first=E. A. | author-last=Vuilleumier | magazine=The Dickinson Alumnus | date=December 1954 | page=9}} There he was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.

Shepley had found a first position in newspapers at the local The Harrisburg Daily Patriot, where his father had been the editor. He had also been a stringer for the Associated Press in Harrisburg. After completing his second year at Dickinson he dropped out in 1936, becoming a cub reporter for The Pittsburgh Press. He was still working there as of 1937.

In 1937 he married the former Jean Stevens from Camp Hill. They had two sons and two daughters together.

Following his time in Pittsburgh, he got a job working for United Press Associations, first covering the Pennsylvania General Assembly in Harrisburg from 1937 to 1940. He then went to Washington, D.C., in 1940, where he covered the U.S. Congress for United Press.

In 1942 he began working for Time magazine's Washington bureau. He then became a war correspondent for Time and Life magazine.

He covered the South-East Asian theatre of World War II. In January 1944 he and several other reporters went to Deogarh, Madhya Pradesh, to meet with Brigadier General Frank Merrill, who was showcasing a new U.S. Army long-range penetration special operations jungle warfare unit that had been training in India. The reporters sat around trying to think of an appealing name for the unit that would enthuse the American public; Shepley suggested "Merrill's Marauders", and that name became the one the unit has always been known by. Shepley did not join Merrill's unit for its insertion into the Burma campaign, however, instead moving on to a different assignment.{{cite book | url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/827257198 | author-last=Mortimer | author-first=Gavin | title=Merrill's Marauders: The Untold Story of Unit Galahad and the Toughest Special Forces Mission of World War II | publisher=Zenith Press | location=Minneapolis | date=2013 | pages=41–42 | isbn=9780760344323 | oclc=827257198 }}

Shepley also reported from the South West Pacific theatre of World War II, as well as the European theatre of World War II, where he covered the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. During that battle he was briefly caught behind German lines.

In 1945 he was commissioned as a captain in the Army, as part of the General Staff Corps, and was detailed to the personal staff of Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall. In that role he accompanied Marshall to the Potsdam Conference and also helped him write an official report regarding the war. In 1946 he was an attaché on the Marshall Mission to China, a mission that attempted, but failed, to negotiate creation of a truce and a unified government between the Chinese Communist Party and the nationalist Kuomintang.

Subsequently, in 1946 Shepley returned to Time Inc. as a diplomatic correspondent back in Washington. In 1948 he became chief of the Washington bureau, a position he continued to hold into the 1950s.{{cite book | author-last=Bird | author-first=Kai | author2-first=Martin J. | author2-last=Sherwin | title=American Prometheus: The Triump and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer | publisher=Alfred A. Knopf | location=New York | date=2005 | url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/13787/american-prometheus-by-kai-bird-and-martin-sherwin/ | pages=465–468}} The prominence of his position, his wartime reporting, and his past association with Marshall, all combined to give Shepley unusual access to the U.S. defense and diplomatic establishments.{{cite book | author1-first=Ken | author1-last=Young | author2-first=Warner R. | author2-last=Schilling | title=Super Bomb: Organizational Conflict and the Development of the Hydrogen Bomb | publisher=Cornell University Press | location=Ithaca, New York | date=2019 | url=https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501745164/super-bomb | pages=139–140}}

By 1953, American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer had taken stances related to the development of the hydrogen bomb and the value and morality of strategic bombardment that led to a concerted effort against Oppenheimer undertaken by the United States Air Force and other elements of the defense and atomic energy establishments.Young and Schilling, Super Bomb, pp. 127ff. Several Time-Life publications were involved in this and Shepley's role in orchestrating the anti-Oppenheimer effort was seen with dismay by at least one former Time Inc. executive.

This work then grew into a book that Shepley wrote together with a former submariner who was a reporter on his staff, Clay Blair Jr.{{cite book | author-last=McMillan | author-first=Priscilla Johnson | title=The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Birth of the Modern Arms Race | publisher=Viking | location=New York | year= 2005 | url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/57342111 | pages=240–243| isbn=9780142001158 | oclc=57342111 }} The resulting Shepley and Blair work, The Hydrogen Bomb: The Men, The Menace, The Mechanism (1954), provoked considerable controversy at the time with its charges that the U.S. development of the hydrogen bomb had been intentionally delayed by some scientists led by Oppenheimer and that the Los Alamos Laboratory had been infiltrated by Communists.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/03/obituaries/james-r-shepley-is-dead-at-71-chief-of-time-inc-from-69-to-80.html | title=James R. Shepley Is Dead at 71; Chief of Time Inc. From '69 to '80 | author-first=Susan Heller | author-last=Anderson | newspaper=The New York Times | date=November 3, 1988 | page=B12}}{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/20/us/clay-blair-73-navy-veteran-and-an-expert-on-submarines.html | title=Clay Blair, 73, Navy Veteran and an Expert on Submarines | author-first=Richard | author-last=Goldstein | newspaper=The New York Times | date=December 20, 1998 | page=67}} While the book was positively reviewed across a large number of newspapers and magazines at the time of publication,Young and Schilling, Super Bomb, p. 141. several scientists who had worked at Los Alamos on the bomb's development soon issued statements refuting its narrative.{{cite journal | title=In Any Light: Scientists and the Decision to Build the Superbomb, 1952–1954 | author-first=Peter | author-last=Galison | author2-first=Barton | author2-last=Bernstein | journal=Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences | volume=19 | issue=2 | date=1989 | page=333}} Interviews conducted during the mid-to-late-1950s (but not published until many decades later) showed almost no scientists speaking well of the book, even those (including physicist Edward Teller) portrayed favorably within it.Young and Schilling, Super Bomb, pp. 142, 144, 189n61. Subsequent scholarship has established that the Shepley and Blair account was largely inaccurate,Young and Schilling, Super Bomb, pp. 139–143.{{cite book |last=Goodchild |first=Peter |title = Edward Teller: the Real Dr. Strangelove |url=https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674016699 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |year=2004 | pages= 253–255}} and moreover, that it was guided by stark H-bomb proponent, and Oppenheimer antagonist, Lewis Strauss.Young and Schilling, Super Bomb, pp. 144–147.McMillan, Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer, pp. 245–247, 312n10, 312–313n15.

In 1956, Shepley interviewed Secretary of State John Foster Dulles for Life magazine,{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fz8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA70 | title=How Dulles Averted War | author-first=James | author-last=Shepley | magazine=Life | date=January 16, 1956 | pages=70–72, 77–78, 80}} and Dulles told him that during the Eisenhower administration the United States had on three occasions been on the "brink" of war "and looked it in the face" (the instances were in Korea during the armistice talks in June 1953, Indochina in April 1954, and the Formosa Straits in late 1954–early 1955). The Dulles remark gained considerable attention and the phrase "brinkmanship" became part of Cold War vocabulary.{{cite book | url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/320901/rise-to-globalism-by-stephen-e-ambrose-and-douglas-g-brinkley/ | title=Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy 1938–1970 | author-first=Stephen E. | author-last=Ambrose | publisher=Penguin Books | year=1971 | pages=225, 227, 237}}

Shepley left the Washington bureau chief position in 1957 to run Time{{'}}s North American news service.

On a Time-Life photo shoot in 1957 Shepley met model Yvonne Hudson, originally from California.{{cite web | url=http://www.obitcentral.com/obitsearch/obits/fl/fl-collier34.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040823160321/http://www.obitcentral.com/obitsearch/obits/fl/fl-collier34.htm | url-status=usurped | archive-date=August 23, 2004 | title=Yvonne Hudson Shepley | publisher=Obitcentral.com | date=February 2001 | access-date=August 8, 2020}}See resulting photographs of Yvonne McCuskey at [http://images.google.com/hosted/life/b202e7552e13ad1b.html this Life page], photographer Hank Walker. Retrieved August 8, 2020. They subsequently married.{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/451997412/?terms=%22james%2Br.%2Bshepley%22%2Byvonne | title=Publisher Escapes Injury in Emergency Landing | agency=Associated Press | newspaper=The Daily Oklahoman | date=August 6, 1964 | page=19 | via=Newspapers.com}} She had three daughters, from a previous marriage to World War II fighter ace Elbert Scott McCuskey,{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/326434233/?terms=mccuskey%2Bace%2Bmidway%2Bmardelle | title=Ace pilot and professor E. Scott McCuskey, 82 | author-first=Christina K. | author-last=Cosdon | newspaper=St. Petersburg Times | date=June 17, 1997 | page=7B | via=Newspapers.com}} whom the Shepleys raised together under his last name.{{cite news | url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/11/26/317494512.pdf | title=Sheryl Shepley Engaged to Wed Francis T. Deane | newspaper=The New York Times | date=November 26, 1967 }} The couple also had a daughter of their own.{{cite book | title=Who was who in America: Volume 9: 1985–1989 | publisher=Marquis | page=325}}

As the 1960 United States presidential election got underway, Shepley took a leave of absence in 1959 to act as an advisor to the campaign of Vice President Richard M. Nixon, who was running for president and became the Republican Party nominee. In that capacity he worked for Nixon's unofficial campaign manager, Leonard W. Hall, and alongside other Nixon aides such as James Bassett.{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/58107813/?terms=%22james%2Br.%2Bshepley%22%2Byvonne | title=Real Pros, Just Friends, Work behind Political Scenes | agency=Associated Press | newspaper=Daily News-Journal | location=Wilmington, Ohio | date=June 27, 1960 | page=3 | via=Newspapers.com}} One of Shepley's assignments during the summer of 1960 was to negotiate with the U.S. State Department to request alternative funding for Tom Mboya's plan to send Kenyan students to American universities.{{cite book | url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Barack-Obama/David-Maraniss/9781439160411 | title=Barack Obama: The Story | author-first=David | author-last=Maraniss | publisher=Simon & Schuster | location=New York | date=2012 | pages=176–177| isbn=978-1-4391-6041-1 }} Shepley obtained a commitment, but those running the program followed their original plan of accepting money from the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation instead. Thus began the Kennedy Airlift, to the political benefit of Nixon's general election rival, Senator John F. Kennedy.{{cite web | url=https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/john-f-kennedy-and-the-student-airlift | title=John F. Kennedy and the Student Airlift | publisher=John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum | access-date=August 22, 2020}}

Following Nixon's defeat, Shepley returned to Time Inc., but this time to the business side of the publishing enterprise. He had no business training of any formal nature. He became an executive, first being assistant publisher of Life magazine. Then by 1964, he was publisher of Fortune magazine. Following that, he became publisher of Time magazine,{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/145311139/?terms=%22james%2Br.%2Bshepley%22 | title=James R. Shepley, ex-chief of Time | agency=Associated Press | newspaper=Asbury Park Press | date=November 3, 1988 | page=A25 | via=Newspapers.com}} which he was by 1967. Finally in 1969 he became president of Time Inc. During this period he lived in Port Washington, New York, and then in Sands Point, New York.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/05/28/archives/notes-on-people-byrd-says-wallace-best-articulates-the-discontent.html | title=Notes on People | newspaper=The New York Times | date=May 28, 1975 | page=51}}

As an executive, he was known as "Brass Knuckles Shepley" for his blunt and aggressive management style. Indeed, Time Inc.'s own acknowledgement of his passing called him a "brusque but decisive manager".{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/169269920/ | title=James R. Shepley, 71, retired Time Inc. chief | agency=Associated Press | newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer | date=November 4, 1988 | page=13-D | via=Newspapers.com}} Well-known Time-Life political correspondent Hugh Sidey said that "Shepley was a great boss – tough, curt, no-nonsense but absolutely loyal. He put his faith in reporters and let them go."

During his time as president, Shepley worked closely with chairman of the board Andrew Heiskell and editor-in-chief Hedley Donovan. Time Inc. began Money magazine in 1972, People magazine in 1974, and brought back Life magazine as a monthly in 1978. It acquired the Book of the Month Club. Shepley oversaw the acquisitions of Temple Industries and Inland Container Corporation, two companies in the pulp and paper industry, which were subsequently spun off to form Temple-Inland.

Most significantly, during the mid-1970s Time Inc. cultivated Home Box Office (HBO) as the first nationwide pay television service. Shepley publicly proclaimed what he saw as the potential of HBO back when it was first a small regional service in Wilkes-Barre and a couple of similar towns in eastern Pennsylvania, saying in early 1973, "Time Inc. has long been intrigued with this method of communication. Initial marketing results indicate a bright role for subscription television. It seems clear that people are willing to pay fair prices to see television programs of their choice which are free of commercials."{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/397301343 | title=Time Financing First Pay TV In Three Areas | newspaper=Wilkes-Barre Times Leader | date=February 22, 1973 | page=2 | via=Newspapers.com}} Time Inc. subsequently bought American Television and Communications in 1977, which became its cable television property. Shepley's personal role seeing a corporate vision for HBO and an overall cable strategy was of decisive importance.{{cite book | url=https://www.harpercollins.com/products/fools-rush-in-nina-munk?variant=32129857388578 | title=Fools Rush In: Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Unmaking of AOL Time Warner | author-first= Nina | author-last=Munk | publisher=HarperBusiness | date=2004 | page=315}} Shepley's successor as Time Inc. president, J. Richard Munro, has said, "Without any doubt, Jim was the father of HBO. He nurtured it and believed in it. The same was true in cable television, with American Television and Communications."

Not all of Shepley's actions worked out. Shepley was the motivating force behind Time Inc.'s purchase of the money-losing Washington Star for $28 million in 1978, convincing Time's board of directors that owning a daily newspaper in the capital would bring a unique sense of prestige. Despite the paper's labor unions agreeing to work concessions that Shepley demanded, the acquisition failed, as the Star lost a further $85 million before the board shut it down in 1981.

Shepley stepped down as president of Time Inc. in 1980. He remained on the board of directors,{{cite news | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-11-03-mn-692-story.html | title=James R. Shepley, 71; Former Time Inc. Writer, Executive | newspaper=Los Angeles Times | date=November 3, 1988 }} serving as chair of the board's executive committee, until he retired in 1982.

Shepley lived in Hartfield, Virginia, after leaving Time Inc. During his retirement he served on the boards of the South Street Seaport Museum, the Pullman Transportation Company, the Henley Group, the Hilton Hotels Corporation, and The Interpublic Group of Companies Inc.

Shepley died at age 71 of cancer at the M.D. Anderson Clinic in Houston, Texas, on November 2, 1988.{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1988/11/03/ex-time-inc-washington-star-executive-james-shepley-dies/8978c3f0-0883-4a9c-9466-65e79037330f/ | title=Ex-Time Inc., Washington Star Executive James Shepley Dies | author-first=Bart | author-last=Barnes | newspaper=The Washington Post | date=November 3, 1988}}

Shepley received an honorary degree from, and gave a commencement address at, Dickinson College in 1959.{{cite web | url=http://archives.dickinson.edu/event/james-r-shepley-receives-honorary-degree | title=James R. Shepley Receives Honorary Degree | publisher=Dickinson College | date=June 7, 1959 | access-date=August 5, 2020}} He received an honorary degree from Clarkson College of Technology in 1966.{{cite web | url=https://www.clarkson.edu/past-recipients | title=Past Recipients | publisher=Clarkson University | access-date=August 8, 2020 }}{{Dead link|date=January 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} And he received an honorary degree, and gave a commencement address, at the University of Florida in 1978.{{cite web | publisher=University of Florida | url=http://www.president.ufl.edu/hddesc.htm | title=Honorary Degree Recipients | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080629061914/http://www.president.ufl.edu/hddesc.htm |archive-date=June 29, 2008 | access-date=April 15, 2010}}

In 1967, Shepley served as national chair for Dickinson College's fund-raising challenge program in association with the Ford Foundation.{{cite news | url=http://archives.dickinson.edu/dickinsonian/dickinsonian-may-6-1967 | title=Shepley Announces $500,000 Donation | newspaper=The Dickinsonian | date=May 6, 1967 | page=1}}

The James R. Shepley HBO Communications Center in Hauppauge, New York, is where HBO program signals are sent up to a communications satellite.{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/229556109/?terms=james%2Bshepley%2B%22home%2Bbox%2Boffice%22 | title=How Captain Midnight Stepped on HBO | newspaper=The Orlando Sentinel | date=July 23, 1986 | page=A1 | via=Newspapers.com}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/research/oral-histories/oral-history-finding-aids/ohfa51.pdf Columbia University Oral History Project, interview by John Luter, 1967]

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