Roger Eugene Ailes (May 15, 1940 – May 18, 2017) was an American media consultant and television executive. Ailes was the founder and former Chairman and CEO of Fox News and the Fox Television Stations Group, from which he resigned in July 2016 following allegations that he harassed female colleagues. Ailes was a media consultant for Republican presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, and for Rudy Giuliani's first mayoral campaign. In 2016, he was an adviser to the Donald Trump campaign, where he assisted with debate preparation.
Ailes was born and grew up in the factory town of Warren, Ohio, the son of Donna Marie (née Cunningham) and Robert Eugene Ailes, a factory maintenance foreman. Ailes suffered from hemophilia and was often hospitalized as a youth. He attended the Warren city schools, and later was inducted into Warren High School's Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame. His father was abusive, and his parents divorced in 1960. Ailes attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, where he majored in radio and television and served as the student station manager for WOUB for two years, before graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1962.
Ailes died May 18, 2017, at his home in Palm Beach, Florida. His death was first announced by his wife, Elizabeth, in a statement on Drudge Report. "I am profoundly sad and heartbroken to report that my husband, Roger Ailes, passed away this morning," she said in a statement. The cause of death is not known. In a 2013 book excerpt from Roger Ailes: Off Camera, Ailes spoke about facing death, saying, "Because of my hemophilia, I've been prepared to face death all of my life. When it comes, I'll be fine, calm. I'll miss life, though. Especially my family."
