Susan Page, the chief of USA Today’s Washington bureau, is married to a fellow journalist. She tied the knot with Carl Leubsdorf in 1982. Leubsdorf covered the nation’s capital as the Dallas Morning News’ Washington bureau chief for nearly 30 years before he retired in 2009.
Page moderated the debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris on October 7.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Carl Leubsdorf Was a White House Correspondents’ Association President & Was Teased By Comedian Jon Stewart During the Annual Dinner in 1997
LinkedInCarl Leubsdorf, Susan Page’s husband.
Leubsdorf graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in 1959, according to his LinkedIn profile. He studied government and was part of Phi Beta Kappa, an academic honor society. Leubsdorf’s next move was back to his hometown of New York City. He earned a master’s degree in journalism in 1960 from Columbia University.
After obtaining his graduate degree, Leubsdorf quickly secured a job with the Associated Press, where he would work for the next 15 years. He started as a staff writer and was promoted to the chief political writer in 1973.
In 1976, Leubsdorf took a job with The Baltimore Sun newspaper as its Washington correspondent. After five years, Leubsdorf accepted the job of Washington Bureau Chief for the Dallas Morning News in 1981. He stayed in that role for 28 years before stepping down in 2009.
Getty President Bill Clinton wipes away tears of laughter as he and White House Correspondents’ Association President Carl P. Leubsdorf (R) listen to comedian Al Franken joke during the annual dinner on May 4, 1996.
During his long tenure covering Washington politics, Leubsdorf served as the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association. (Page is also a past president of the organization).
In 1997, Leubsdorf found himself briefly in the spotlight during the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner when comedian Jon Stewart called him out. Stewart said he was nervous about accepting the invitation to speak but that his mother encouraged him to do it because “when in your lifetime do you think you’ll ever get the opportunity to meet, or even really eat in the same room as the Carl Leubsdorf?” After the crowd laughed, Stewart continued: “They told me that name would work, I really don’t know who he is… Carl, I know you’re thinking the same thing about me too.” You can see the clip on YouTube here; Stewart bit involving Leubsdorf begins at about 43:20.
2. Leubsdorf Writes Editorial Columns for The Dallas Morning News
There’s never been a presidential debate like the one Tuesday night in Cleveland. My take. t.co/YMvyaEWzJH
Leubsdorf retired from his role as the Dallas Morning News‘ Washington bureau chief in 2009 but he is still covering the political scene. Leubsdorf has continued to write opinion pieces for the newspaper as a columnist.
After President Donald Trump and former VP Joe Biden debated on September 29, Leubsdorf wrote that the “90-minute nationally televised confrontation in Cleveland was a brawl unbefitting the presidency.” Leubsdorf had a harsh assessment of Trump’s performance in particular: “If Trump’s goal was to show that the 77-year-old Biden was a man of diminished mental capacity, unfit for the presidency, he failed to do so, while living up to his Democratic rival’s advance characterization of him as a bully.”
One of Leubsdorf’s annual traditions at the beginning of the calendar year is to share his predictions for what is to come. In the piece published on December 31, 2019, Leubsdorf predicted that former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg would win the Democratic primary and that he would select former Georgia representative Stacey Abrams as his running mate. Leubsdorf forecasted Buttigieg would defeat Trump in a close election and select Biden as the Secretary of Defense.
Leubsdorf began the article by pointing out a couple of his 2019 predictions that had not come to pass: “Though last year’s annual not-totally-serious forecast missed by predicting Ivanka Trump would become White House chief of staff and Vladimir Putin would formally endorse President Donald Trump for re-election, it did foresee the Washington Nationals winning the World Series and the House impeaching Trump. 2020 looks even more challenging.”
3. Leubsdorf Grew Up in New York City & Is the Son of German Immigrants
Boys on the bus! Connie Chung, Tom Oliphant and Carl Leubsdorf talk at @PressClubDC about how things have changed since 1972, and how they haven’t.
Leubsdorf was born in March 1938, according to a search of online records. He is the son of Karl Leubsdorf and Bertha Boschwitz. He was raised in New York City and attended the private Fieldston School in the Bronx, according to his 1982 wedding announcement. His brother, John Leubsdorf, is a professor at Rutgers Law School.
According to his obituary, the elder Leubsdorf grew up in Cologne, Germany. He attended Cambridge University in England and began a banking career before immigrating to the United States in 1936. The New York Times obit said Karl Leubsdorf worked as a financial adviser for the Carl H. Pforzheimer & Company from 1942 until his death in December 1977 at age 69. He passed away after suffering a heart attack in his office.
Bertha Boschwitz was originally from Berlin, according to her obituary. She was still a child when her family immigrated to the United States. She graduated from Hunter College in Manhattan in 1929 and went on to teach at her alma mater. In the mid-1980s, she endowed the Karl and Bertha Leubsdorf Gallery at Hunter College in honor of her husband’s memory. Boschwitz passed away in 1998 at age 90.
There is one noteworthy inconsistency between the two obituaries. Boschwitz’s obit states she and Karl married in 1934. But according to his obit, he didn’t move to the United States until 1936.
4. Leubsdorf’s First Marriage Ended in Divorce & He Has One Son
Made a new friend the other night at Nats Park
Leubsdorf’s first marriage was to Carolyn Cleveland Stockmeyer. She passed away in November 1999 at age 67 after battling lung cancer.
According to her obituary in the Washington Post, Stockmeyer was raised in New Orleans. She had two sons and two daughters with her first husband, Edwin William Stockmeyer, who died in 1961. Following his death, Stockmeyer moved with her children to Washington, D.C. in 1963 and got involved in politics. She served as the Republican National Committee’s finance communication director from 1982 until 1989. She also worked in the Agriculture Department during the first Bush administration.
Stockmeyer and Leubsdorf had one child together, Carl Leubsdorf Jr. According to his LinkedIn page, he is based in Bethesda, Maryland. He owns an “international technology and Internet strategy consultancy” firm called Solvitor.
5. Leubsdorf Is a Registered Democrat
D.C. Board of ElectionsCarl Leubsdorf is a registered Democrat but wife Susan Page is unaffiliated.
Leubsdorf has been a registered Democrat in Washington, D.C. since August 1978, according to records on the Board of Elections website. Wife Susan Page is not affiliated with a political party. She has been registered to vote in Washington, D.C. since 1984 but the record states “No party.”
Happy birthday, @CarlPLeubsdorf!
Leubsdorf and Page had a nondenominational ceremony when they tied the knot in May 1982. According to their wedding announcement in the New York Times, the wedding took place at their home. Leubsdorf’s son served as his best man.
The couple still lives in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C., according to property records.
Good news: My sheltered-in-place husband has now completed the 962-piece @LEGO_Group ship-in-a-bottle, to join the Eiffel tower, Notre Dame and the space shuttle. The ship was advertised as suitable for 12-year-olds but fortunately didn’t have an upper age limit.
In April, Page revealed what her husband had been up to the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic. She shared on Twitter: “Good news: My sheltered-in-place husband has now completed the 962-piece @LEGO_Group ship-in-a-bottle, to join the Eiffel tower, Notre Dame and the space shuttle. The ship was advertised as suitable for 12-year-olds but fortunately didn’t have an upper age limit.
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