Editor’s note: One of the most revered music-industry figures of the mid-20th century, Paul Ackerman was the music editor of “Billboard” magazine from 1943 to 1973. His tenure in this powerful post coincided, of course, with the tumultuous birth of rock & roll; and via his formidable intellect and his reputation as a scholar of European and American civilization, he was first among the journalists who made the new music a form to be taken very seriously indeed, inside the business and out.

Paul Ackerman was the recipient of dozens of awards in the fields of musical journalism and scholarship. His induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame crowns, albeit posthumously, the honors gathered by this remarkable man.