Samuel J. Archibald

As chief of staff for Rep. John Moss’ Government Information Subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives, Samuel Archibald helped draft the original FOIA legislation enacted in 1966.

A former reporter with the Sacramento (Calif.) Bee, he was hired by Moss to come to Washington as an aide and became a key player in Moss’ investigation of government secrecy, which led to FOIA. Archibald rallied support, rounding up key journalists — such as American Society of Newspaper Editors members J. Russell Wiggins and James S. Pope — to testify on the need for legislation.

Archibald later became director of the Washington office of the University of Missouri Freedom of Information Center, rounding out his career as a journalism professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, his alma mater, where he became professor emeritus.

Samuel Archibald died on April 7, 2006, in Charlotte, N.C.