Ron Shaffer was born in San Bernardino, Calif., and raised in Riverside, Calif.
As a teenager, he worked for several years as a sports reporter and editor for the Riverside Press-Enterprise. Best part: traveling with the Dodgers and seeing many of the grand old ballparks, including Crosley Field (Cincinnati),
Forbes Field (Pittsburgh) and Sportsman's Park (St. Louis). He had almost completed a bachelor's degree at the University of Southern California when his deferments ran out and he was activated by the Naval Reserve.
First stop was Defense Information School at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Ind., where he was assured if he finished at the top of his class he would have a choice assignment. He finished at the top of his class and was immediately ordered to Vietnam. The Navy, such pranksters!
He served 27 months there, first in the 7th Fleet public information office, then teaching English to Vietnamese, and finally as a correspondent for Pacific Stars and Stripes. Colleagues there included Jack Fuller, now editor of the Chicago Tribune; Steve Kroft, a 60 Minutes anchor; Phil McCombs of our Style staff; and Larry McQuillan, White House correspondent for Reuters.
The Post's Vietnam correspondent, Peter Jay, wrote an enthusiastic job recommendation for Shaffer. As fate had it, Jay's next assignment was The Post's deputy metropolitan editor and chief of Metro hiring. The first page in Shaffer's application contained Jay's recommendation. What could he say?
Shaffer began on the Metro staff in 1971, serving as a reporter in Fairfax County and Arlington, and as a criminal justice reporter on the District staff. He wrote a series of articles on a local law enforcement sting operation in 1976, and that led to a book, published by Viking Press, with city editor Kevin Klose and longtime Post police correspondent Alfred E. Lewis.
With partner Lewis M. Simons, Shaffer was a finalist for the 1980 Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting for a series on how a local self-help group, known as PRIDE, INC., enriched itself at the expense of the poor. The series led to the prosecution, conviction and imprisonment of several people, including the former wife of then-mayor Marion S. Barry.
In the 1980s, Shaffer became an assistant city editor, assistant Metro editor and deputy Metro editor. He began the Dr. Gridlock column in 1986 and receives hundreds of letters a month. He currently works on the column in the Fairfax bureau.
