Lee Hills Hall Dedicated April 18, 1995 This building is named in honor of Lee Hills, journalist. His career--as a reporter, editor, lawyer, newspaper executive and foundation chainman--spans much of the twentieth century. He began as a reporter for the weekly Price, Utah, News-Advocate (1921) and rose to chief executive of America's largest newspaper groupKnight-Ridder Newspapers (1974). Mr. Hills was born on a farm near Granville, N.D., May 28, 1906. He attended the Missouri School of Journalism from 1927 to 1929, when he left for a job with his first daily, the Oklahoma City Times. He worked (1932-42) as a reporter, news editor, editorial writer, and editor for Scripps-Howard's Oklahoma News, Indianapolis Times, Memphis Press-Scimitar and Cleveland Press. He studied nights to earn a law degree and was admitted to the Oklahoma bar in 1934. He joined Knight's Miami Herald in 1942 and was managing editor, executive editor, foreign correspondent, publisher and editorial chairman. He also was executive editor, then president, publisher and editorial chairman of the Detroit Free Press (1951-81). Mr. Hills was executive editor (1959-67), then president (1967-73) of Knight Newspapers, and an architect of the merger of the Knight and Ridder newspaper groups. He was the first chairman and chief executive of the combined Knight-Ridder Newspapers (1974-79). He was chairman (1979-81), then editorial chairman emeritus (1981-present) of Knight-Ridder Newspapers. His honors include the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism in 1951, the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism in 1956 and the William Allen White and the Maria Moors Cabot awards. He served as president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Inter-American Press Association, the Associated Press Managing Editors Association and the Society of Professional Journalists (Sigma Delta Chi). He served on a range of national boards, including those of the American Federation of Arts, the American Judicature Society, the Pulitzer Prizes, the American Red Cross and the American Management Association. He was a member of advisory boards at Stanford University, the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Utah. He received honorary doctorates from the University of Missouri, the University of Utah, the University of Miami and others. In recognition of Mr. Hill's contributions to U.S. journalism, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation gave the initial $2 million for the fund-raising campaign to build Lee Hills Hall, More than $3 million in additional funds came from gifts from Lee and Tina Hills, The Kresge Foundation, the family of Marvin D. McQueen (BJ '36), Eastman Kodak Company, the Sungkok Journalism Foundation, the Missouri Press Association, Knight-Ridder newspapers, alumni of the Missouri School of Journalism and other friends of Lee Hills and the Missouri School of Journalism.