Joseph Medill Patterson Albright (né Reeve; born April 3, 1937) is an American journalist and author. A descendant of the Medill-Patterson media family, Albright wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times before becoming a reporter and executive at Newsday. He was later Washington and foreign correspondent for Cox Newspapers, receiving several journalism awards and nominations. Albright has authored three books; two with his wife, fellow reporter Marcia Kunstel. He was formerly married to Madeleine Korbel Albright, who later became the first female U.S. Secretary of State.
Early life
Albright was born Joseph Medill Patterson Reeve in New Orleans, on April 3, 1937, to lawyer Jay Frederick "Fred" Reeve and his wife Josephine Medill Patterson, a reporter and airplane pilot. His younger sister Alice became a screenwriter. His parents divorced in 1944, and in 1946 Josephine married the painter Ivan Le Lorraine Albright. Ivan Albright adopted Joseph and Alice, who took his surname, and with Josephine had two more children, Adam and Blandina ("Dina"). Josephine chronicled young Joseph in a weekly New York Newsday column, "Life with Junior". He attended Groton School, Massachusetts, before studying at Williams College.
Albright is a scion of a newspaper empire: his grandfather and namesake Joseph Medill Patterson founded the New York Daily News, and his grand-aunt Eleanor "Cissy" Patterson published and edited the Washington Times-Herald. His great-great-grandfather, Joseph Medill, owned the Chicago Tribune and served as mayor of Chicago. Albright's aunt Alicia Patterson was founder and publisher of Newsday, and without children of her own, gave special attention to Joseph and Alice,