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Eugene Field – 2013

Born in St. Louis, Eugene Field lived in an era in which newspaper reporters dreamed of becoming poets and fiction writers. He reversed that process for a while. Having written his first poem at age 9, he held jobs at several newspapers following college, including city editor of the St. Joseph, Mo., Gazette, before landing a high-profile position writing a humorous column for the Chicago Daily News.

Finding success there with his “Sharps and Flats” column, he began dabbling in poetry again, publishing over a dozen volumes. Many of those works were for children, including his most-famous work, “Wynken, Blynken and Nod.”

Jim Fox – 2013

A newspaper career that spans 65 years is an accomplishment in itself, but Jim Fox did it by writing a column even after he retired from the Post-Dispatch. After a stroke destroyed his ability to type, he dictated the columns to his wife and daughter.

He began his work in St. Louis at the Star-Times, moving to the Post and, after retirement, the Suburban Journals. He often joked that his variety of jobs, including that of the Post’s readers’ advocate, “indicate they never knew what to do with me.”

While many journalists appreciated him for his advocate’s work, it was the folksiness of his columns that endeared Jim Fox to his legions of readers.

Ralph Graczak – 2013

Joseph Pulitzer Jr, came to to Post-Dispatch staff artist Ralph Graczak in1940 with an idea for a new comic strip.  Pulitzer thought everyone should have their name in the newspaper at least once, and a good way to do it was with a cartoon similar to Ripley’s Believe it or Not.  St. Louis Oddities was born, later to become Our Own Oddities, and became, along with its artist, one of the most widely read and beloved features in St. Louis journalism history.  Graczak received hundreds of letters a week, submitting the likes of gourds shaped like Richard Nixon to talking dogs, and he personally verified each of them.  The strip lasted until 1990. Graczak was a brilliant illustrator. His caricatures of celebrities often highlighted the Everyday section and TV book and were much admired by fellow artists, including then-colleague and Hall of Fame member Bill Mauldin  Another local neigborhood cigar-smoking young cartoonist was Hall of Fame member Amadee Wohlschlaeger, who convinced the young Gracak to quit the Katy Railroad and join the Post. Graczak retired from the Post in 1980.

Don Hesse – 2013

If St. Louisans grew annoyed with the liberal editorial cartoons in the Post-Dispatch, they would be delighted by turning to the Globe-Democrat’s editorial page.  From 1951 to 1984 that cartoon spot was held by Don Hesse, one of the most gifted draftsmen and conservative editorial cartoonists in the country.  His simple, loose pencil technique was sublime and his political viewpoint was always direct and forceful. Having been honored by the Freedoms Foundation, the American Legion and the National Headliners Club, Hesse gained a national reputation and following. It could even be said that changed he changed Republican Party history.  For it was a 1965 party at Hesse’s Belleville home that he introduced his friend Richard Nixon to a young Globe editorial writer – Pat Buchanan. 

Hesse started his career at the Belleville News-Democrat and joined the Globe as a staff artist in 1946 before moving to the editorial page.  He returned the News-Democrat in 1984.  His work was nationally syndicated by the Los Angeles Times and the McNaught Syndicates.

Pete Rahn – 2013

Pete Rahn entered the field of print journalism at the age of 15 and stayed in the business at the Globe-Democrat for almost 49 years. His first job was junior financial copy editor for the Globe. In the late 1940s, editor Richard Amberg assigned him the job of creating and editing the paper’s television guide, making the Globe one of the first newspapers in the nation to publish one. Rahn expressed pride in being the first to include detailed descriptions of movies to be televised. He soon started writing columns about TV on his own and, over the course of several decades, wrote over 7,000 of them and interviewed scores of the medium’s personalities. He received the Board of Governors’ Emmy Award from the local chapter of NATAS.      

Richard Weil – 2013

His career spanned 42 years as a newspaper reporter and editor  – 11 years at the Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, MA., and 30 years at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  He joined the P-D at the end of 1973.  In his years on the City Desk and as an assistant managing editor, he put a heavy emphasis on investigative reporting, overseeing many major investigative series. He also was in charge of Sunday edition for many years.

In 1996, Richard was appointed managing editor and was credited with keeping the newsroom on an “even keel” during a period of management upheaval. Three years later, Weil became executive editor.  He finished out his newspaper career as editor for investigative projects.

He retired in the summer of 2004, but within a couple years he came out of retirement as one of the founders and board president of the St. Louis Beacon, a not-for-profit online news source, which began publication in 2008. In December of 2013, the Beacon merged news operations with St. Louis Public Radio.