Pride had been an avid reader and writer throughout his career, writing daily journals for almost 40 years, authoring and editing eight books, and contributing columns to Monitor and other national publications.
His nine-year stint as a Pulitzer Prize board member from 1999 marked the peak of his career. After retiring in 2011, he returned to work as the prize administrator for three years starting in 2014.
An accomplished writer and storyteller, Pride created deep relationships with poets and wrote columns to explain controversial decisions to Monitor readers.
He also established a rotating board of local contributors and edited letters to the editor himself.
For years, he printed columns about state prison life written by an inmate serving a life sentence for murdering his ex-wife’s boyfriend.
Pride’s newsroom was known for providing young journalists with a launching pad to gain experience and trust, and his retirement party in 2008 was attended by many appreciative alumni from around the country.
Pride was born on July 31, 1946, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and grew up in Clearwater, Florida. His parents were not readers, but he found his love for literature at his grandparents’ library in Connecticut.
He got his start in newspaper writing at age 14, covering a high school track meet for the Tampa Tribune.
After flunking out of the University of Florida, he enlisted in the Army and qualified for the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, where he learned Russian.
He later served in West Germany, where he intercepted Soviet tankers’ chatter on the Elbe River.
Pride met Monique in a bar and proposed to her less than a month later. They were married in January 1970 and had three sons: Sven, Yuri, and Misha.
Mike Pride Cause of death
Mike Pride, the editor of Concord Monitor, passed away at the age of 76 due to a long-standing blood disorder.
Pride was a family man who spent 53 years of his life devotedly married to Monique Pride. They raised three sons and enjoyed spending summers at their cottage on Rand Pond in Goshen.
Aiva Arthur
