An ISU alumnus who was editor emeritus of two news publications — The Wall Street Journal and the Iowa State Daily — died Wednesday of cancer, one week after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor. He was 66.

Robert L. Bartley joined the Wall Street Journal as a reporter in 1962. During the next decade, he worked his way up the paper’s chain of command as a reporter, columnist, editorial page editor and finally the editor in chief.

In bestowing the nation’s highest civilian honor, President Bush declared, “Robert L. Bartley is one of the most influential journalists in American history. His writings have been characterized by profound insights, passionate convictions, a commitment to democratic principles and an unyielding optimism in American. The United States honors him for his contributions to American journalism and to the intellectual and political life of our nation.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, as a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer, Bartley’s columns ranged from criticisms of arms-control treaties to questioning Bill Clinton’s character. His greatest impact came from his editorial pages, where he championed supply-side economics, the tax cutting ideology that has influenced Republicans from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush.

Critics claimed he was too conservative (they point to his famous comment he wanted to save the world from “lily-livered liberals”), but others said his editorial columns reshaped America’s fiscal path.

“How many other editorial pages can say they created the economic policy for an administration and for an era? Without The Wall Street Journal editorial page, there is no supply-side economics,” said journalist Fred Barnes in a Public Broadcasting System documentary in 1999.

According to the Journal, Bartley, who once considered himself too liberal to fit into the Journal’s editorial page, attributed his views to his Iowa upbringing.

“I think there is something about a Midwestern background that tends to make people unafraid in expressing their own opinions, a little less sensitive to peer pressure maybe than in the East,” he said.

His former ISU professors could attest to his strong opinions. James Schwartz, professor emeritus in journalism and mass communication, taught many of Bartley’s journalism classes. He said Bartley “was a personality that was very determined and always challenging the status quo.”

Schwartz said Bartley’s greatest strength as the editor in chief of the Iowa State Daily was his courage.

“He felt, and felt I think, all his life, that journalists were in a position to make a difference. All they needed was the courage to work hard at it, and that’s what he did,” he said.

Schwartz said he had just e-mailed Bartley to congratulate him for receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was shocked by the news of his death.

“The world of journalism has lost an important person, certainly not someone everyone agreed with, but someone who everyone knew was a leader,” he said.

The son of an ISU professor of veterinary medicine, Bartley was born in Marshall, Minn., on Oct. 12, 1937. He grew up in Ames and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Iowa State in 1959. He lived in Pammel Court with his wife, Edith, and was editor in chief of the Iowa State Daily.

Tom Emmerson, professor in the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, who was a classmate of Bartley’s and his successor as editor in chief of the Daily, said he was intelligent, thoughtful and self-confident.

“I can’t remember a time when he doubted he was right after coming to a conclusion,” Emmerson said. “But he was also charming, witty and extremely intelligent.”

Emmerson pointed out that despite his lifetime of achievements, Bartley wasn’t perfect.

“The only thing I was better at than Bartley was singing, and I was atrocious,” Emmerson said. “I can unreservedly say that Bob was the worst singer I have ever known.”

— Daily Staff Writer Nicole Paseka contributed to this article.