Stephen Rosenfeld

Who was Stephen Rosenfeld?

Stephen Samuel Rosenfeld was an American journalist who worked as an editor and columnist for The Washington Post for 40 years. He joined the newspaper in 1959 as a reporter, was promoted to the editorial board in 1962, became deputy editor of the editorial pages in 1982, and page editor in 1999.

During his time with the newspaper, he wrote over 10,000 op-ed pieces and editorials. The Post wrote on his death that the ones he was proudest of were a series of editorials calling for the release from internal exile in the Soviet Union of Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov. According to the Post, Sakharov, after his release in 1986, visited Washington and asked to speak to the person who had written the editorials.

Rosenfeld was the author with his wife, Barbara, of Return From Red Square about his time as the Post's Moscow chief in Moscow in 1964, and The Time of Their Dying about his parents' death.