Inducted: 1977
PAUL R. WADE (1907-1972) built the Elk City Daily News into a three-time state fair sweepstakes winner by following the creed that “no city is more productive than the newspaper that serves it.” He published the paper for 28 years (1934-72), learning his craft from the newspaper giants in the Eugene Pulliam publishing organization. His newspaper also was one of the first to use offset printing and the cold-type composition process. It once was selected as the best newspaper in the Southwest by the U.S. Soil Conservation Service.