Rachel Kollock McDowell (January 11, 1880 – August 30, 1949) was an American journalist and the first religion editor of The New York Times, serving in that position from 1920 to 1948.
During decades of rapid social change, she was known for her connections with Protestant and Catholic clergy, as well as Jewish rabbis, and paid special attention to interfaith efforts.
The daughter of Josephine Timanus and William Osborn McDowell, Rachel and her twin brother Malcolm were born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1880 as the third and fourth children of seven.
[2] McDowell was educated in Newark and grew up in a strict Presbyterian household whose members attended three church services every Sunday.
Seeking a writing job, at age 22 she obtained a position as a reporter covering weddings and other society topics for the Newark Evening News.
[1][3] Beginning in 1908, she developed a "brilliant career" as a religious reporter and news editor of the New York Herald but worried when the paper was sold in 1920.
"[1] The reporter Meyer Berger of The New York Times tells the following story about her: When Bishop Manning called a press conference one day to announce a $10,000,000 campaign for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, he held up his statement until she got there – 50 minutes late.
"[1] McDowell recounted that one of her most notable memories was getting trapped in the mausoleum of Princess Anastasia of Greece after her funeral in 1923 at Woodlawn Cemetery in New York.
An American heiress who married into the Greek royal family, the Princess had left instructions in her will that she should be interred with her parents at Woodlawn.