It is with great regret that we inform you of the death of Newton N. Minow, our friend and colleague. Newt passed away on Saturday, May 6, 2023, at home surrounded by his family.
A modern-day Renaissance man, Newt occupied a unique place in firm history. During his more than 50 years with the firm, his practice encompassed everything from litigation and corporate matters to trusts and estates. From 1965 to 1991, he held a variety of leadership roles. While Howard Trienens, the Chair of the Executive Committee, was also serving as the general counsel of AT&T, Newt and Blair White (the Chair of the Management Committee) were particularly active in leading the firm. Newt was also a longtime member of both the Executive and Management Committees.
His diverse interests and entrepreneurial spirit helped guide the strategic growth of the firm during the ‘70s and ‘80s, particularly with respect to Sidley’s presence in the Asia Pacific region. His lifelong commitment to public service helped the firm forge deeper relationships with community organizations and educational programs. In 1984, he led efforts to establish the firm’s first corporate partnership with the “adoption” of Kanoon Magnet Elementary School in Chicago. Newt joined the firm as part of Sidley’s 1972 consolidation with Leibman, Williams, Bennett, Baird & Minow, a smaller firm known for its work with media, real estate and financial clients. The newly combined firm of 150 lawyers was then one of the largest in the United States.
Prior to beginning his career in law, Newt served as a U.S. Army Sergeant in the China-Burma-India Theater in World War II. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Northwestern University in 1949 and a law degree from Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law in 1950. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Fred M. Vinson, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, from 1951 to 1952 and as assistant counsel to Governor Adlai E. Stevenson during his presidential campaigns of 1952 and 1956.
When Newt came to private practice, he already had a strong background in public service. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed him chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In his first address, Minow challenged national broadcasters to improve the quality of television programming, proclaiming the current programming a “… vast wasteland.” The phrase stuck, and thereafter, Newt Minow and “a vast wasteland” became synonymous in popular culture. Hollywood producer Sherwood Schwartz named the sinking ship on the TV sitcom “Gilligan’s Island” – the S.S. Minnow – after the FCC chairman.
Newt was active in numerous civic and charitable organizations and served as a director for Aon, Sara Lee and CBS. As chairman of the Public Broadcasting Service, he helped gain federal funding to launch the beloved children’s show “Sesame Street” and, in later years, helped organize the Commission on Presidential Debates.
The street outside of Sidley’s Chicago office has been named Newton N. Minow Way, and an endowed professorship is named in his honor at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law. Minow was also named the first Jewish trustee of the University of Notre Dame, an honor of which he was particularly proud.
In 2016, President Barack Obama presented Newt with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This honor closed a circle that began back in 1989 when his daughter, Martha, then a professor at Harvard Law School, sent her father a glowing recommendation on behalf of a young scholar named Barack Obama, whom she claimed was one of the most gifted law students she had ever taught.
Newt is survived by his three daughters Nell, Martha and Mary. He was predeceased by his wife Josephine.