Leroy Aarons was an Award-winning journalist, editor, author, librettist, and playwright, whose multi-faceted career included stints as a national news correspondent, Pulitzer Prize-winning editor, university professor, and pioneer for diversity in the news and information industry. He was a founding member of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, as well as founder and Hall of Fame inductee of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

Co-written with Geoffrey Cowan, Aaron’s docudrama, Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers, was broadcast nationally and received the Committee for Public Broadcasting’s coveted Gold Award (National Public Radio).

His book, Prayers for Bobby, became a best seller and was adapted as a choral cantata and feature film.

A lifelong journalist, Aarons covered events as chief of the Washington Post on both coasts, before joining the Oakland Tribune, as Executive Editor, winning a Pulitzer Prize for photographic coverage of the devastating Loma Prieta earthquake.