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Journalism laboratory named for Fort Worth Star-Telegram editor
Before he finished high school, retired Fort Worth Star-Telegram editor Jack Tinsley had published his first story in a city newspaper. Before he entered college, he was the editor of two newspapers.
In recognition of his service to Texas journalism and to the UNT Department of Journalism, faculty in the department recently renamed the journalism reporting lab in Tinsley's honor. Room 112 in UNT's General Academic Building is now known as the Tinsley Reporting Lab.
"Jack has been one of the most important supporters of the journalism program, through his financial support and his presence in classes and as a member of our advisory board," says Jim Albright, chair of the Department of Journalism.
Tinsley is a frequent guest lecturer in the department. In 1996, he created the Jack B. Tinsley/Fort Worth Star-Telegram Endowed Journalism Scholarship. The scholarship, which is renewable each year, is open to transfer students and recent high school graduates who plan to major in journalism at UNT and who are from Tarrant County or one of several counties in East Texas, where Tinsley grew up.
A native of Huntington, a small town in Angelina County in East Texas, Tinsley began his newspaper career at age 15 when he wrote a sports story and received a byline in the Angelina News. After graduating from high school, he became editor of the nearby Diboll News-Bulletin and also started a weekly newspaper in Corrigan in Polk County. He was also a correspondent for the Lufkin Daily News.
As a student at Sam Houston State University, Tinsley returned to East Texas each summer to work for the Diboll and Corrigan newspapers.
After graduating, he served in the U.S. Army before joining the Fort Worth Star-Telegram staff as a reporter in 1959. He covered the Kennedy assassination in 1963 and the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Miss. In 1965, he won the National Education Writers Association's top award for a series on academic freedom in Texas. The series also won the Public Service Citation of the Texas chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
In 1966, Tinsley became the Star-Telegram's Sunday editor. He also served as assistant managing editor before becoming executive editor in 1975. In 1981, he acquired the additional title of vice president for community affairs. During Tinsley's tenure as executive editor, the Star-Telegram won two Pulitzer Prizes.
He has served as president of the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors Association, the Rotary Club of Fort Worth, the Fort Worth Parenting Chapter, the Press Club of Fort Worth and the Fort Worth chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. In 1984, he was named a distinguished alumnus of Sam Houston State University.
Tinsley retired from the Star-Telegram last year. At UNT, he was named to the C.E. Shuford Journalism Hall of Honor and the UNT Wall of Honor. He is a lifetime member of the university's President's Council.
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BY
NANCY KOLSTI |
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