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Jere Hoar
Jere Hoar got his start in journalism early. Born in Dyersburg, Tennessee, his primary and secondary education took place in the public schools of nine states, most of them southern, but in his own words, he “grew up” in the newspaper business. His father was an editor/publisher.
Beginning in high school, Hoar worked as a reporter, news editor, or editor for two weekly newspapers, a small daily, and two trade publications. He earned a bachelors degree at Auburn, then served in the Air Force during the Korean War period. He received his M.A. from Ole Miss and earned a Ph.D. in mass communications from the University of Iowa. In 1956 he joined the journalism faculty at the University of Mississippi, where he taught for 36 years. There he received the university-wide Outstanding Teacher Award in 1974, and the nation-wide Silver Em for outstanding contributions to journalism in 1994. In 1971, when he successfully completed a Mississippi Preceptorship in Law and passed the state Bar examination, Hoar became one of the last Americans admitted to the Bar without having attended law school.
Over the years he utilized his diverse mass communications training to develop and teach 19 different undergraduate and graduate university courses. His specialties were press law, public opinion and polling, and feature article writing. Many of his former students have worked for, and do work for, major mass media entities and have been recognized nationally for superior performance in their fields, receiving among other professional awards the Pulitzer Prize. He is equally proud, he says, of others who “chose to do good work in small places.”
Hoar’s first book of fiction, Body Parts, a collection of short stories, was a “Notable Book of the Year” selection by the New York Times and by Booklist, the journal of the American Library Association. His first novel, The Hit, was winner of the Independent Publisher award as best mystery/thriller/suspense novel of the year and a Kansas City Star selection as a “Notable Book of the Year.” But the greatest honor of his life, Hoar says, is that some of his former students established a journalism scholarship endowment in his name at the University of Mississippi.
Hoar lives on a farm near Oxford, Mississippi. |
