the snow/ice storm and the will to attend an induction ceremony By Joe Hight, 2013 Inductee Snow and ice were predicted in Colorado on April 17th, 2013. I told my wife, Nan, that we had to make it to my Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame induction by the next morning. Even with a four-wheel drive […]
picture this Hall of Fame couple By Billie Rodely, 2004 Inductee Joan Gilmore met Al McLaughlin while they both worked at The Daily Oklahoman. McLaughlin photographed everything from prison riots to presidents. Gilmore was the Women’s News Editor. They both lived Hall of Fame careers. He was inducted in 1988 and she followed in 1994. […]
from an Oklahoma twang to Today Show host By Joseph H. Carter, Sr., 1992 Inductee Born in 1940, Jim Hartz was the son of an Assembly of God pastor. He and I were young newsmen when I first met him in Tulsa. Later, we co-owned a public affairs consultancy in Washington, D.C. To pay tuition […]
from war hero to journalism pioneer By Emily Siddiqui, Student Editor Raoul Jacques “Jack” DeLier was a war hero before traveling the country to sell motion pictures for Universal Studios. Then a job offer changed his life and propelled him into a distinguished career, one which earned him induction into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of […]
the two hall-of-fame Jacks who helped launch my career By Ralph Schaefer, 2017 Inductee Two Jacks—Jack Bickham and Jack Dyer—helped start a nearly 50- year newspaper career. They were newspaper editors in the late 1960s, and they had a lifelong impact on a Central State College journalism student. I was a junior in 1968 and […]
a ring instead of a raise By Billie Rodely, 2004 Inductee When J. Leland Gourley rolled the presses for a new weekly Oklahoma City suburban newspaper, FRIDAY, in 1974, Nichols Hills was the focus of most of the content. The circulation quickly grew, and FRIDAY became the largest paid circulation weekly in Oklahoma and sold […]
my mom: a pioneer in television By Bob Blackburn, 2020 Lifetime Achievement Recipient There will never be another Ida B. From 1958 to 1975, Ida B. Blackburn hosted more than 3,000 shows on live television at KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City. Following that remarkable run on the air, Ida B became the first female sales executive […]
‘But it’s Harry’ By Terry Clark, 2000 Inductee “The man who taught Oklahoma’s journalists” was the Oklahoma Press Association’s front-page headline in the Oklahoma Publisher when Dr. Harry Heath, Jr. died. The paper “turned” the column rules, an old journalism tradition, with the comment, “because we mourn the loss of our colleague, mentor, and most […]
the missed opportunity By John Greiner, 1993 Inductee Just about everyone can look back in life and recognize missed opportunities. So it is with me and H.H. Herbert, a journalism icon who came to the University of Oklahoma in 1913. He was a professor of journalism for 46 years, 26 of them as head of […]
flying in the visual news factory By George Tomek, 2017 Inductee I met Ernie Schultz years before working for him. A Tulsa television colleague had raved about WKY-TV Channel 4 News in Oklahoma City, so I drove over one day in 1960 and briefly met Ernie, a Korean War veteran and consummate professional. There, I […]