Background
Lee Hills was born on May 28, 1906, in Egg Creek Township, North Dakota, United States. He was a son of Lewis Amos Hills and Lulu Mae (Loomis) Hills. Lee's family moved to Utah after his mother's death in 1911.
Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, United States
In 1925, Lee finished his studies at Brigham Young University.
University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, United States
In 1929, Hills graduated from the University of Missouri.
2501 N Blackwelder Ave, Oklahoma City, OK 73106, United States
In 1934, Hills received a Bachelor of Laws degree from Oklahoma City University.
Lee received the Pulitzer Prize twice during his lifetime - in 1951 and 1956.
administrator editor journalist publisher reporter author
Lee Hills was born on May 28, 1906, in Egg Creek Township, North Dakota, United States. He was a son of Lewis Amos Hills and Lulu Mae (Loomis) Hills. Lee's family moved to Utah after his mother's death in 1911.
In 1925, Lee finished his studies at Brigham Young University. Then, in 1929, he graduated from the University of Missouri. In 1934, Hills received a Bachelor of Laws degree from Oklahoma City University.
During his lifetime, Hills received many honorary degrees, including an honorary degree in Business Administration from Cleary College (present-day Cleary University) in 1958, an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Eastern Michigan University in 1969, an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of Utah in 1969, an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of Missouri in 1988 and others.
Lee began his career in journalism as a teenage reporter, covering mining disasters in Utah. In 1929, he started working as a reporter and editorial writer at the Oklahoma City Times. Then, Hills reported for that newspaper's competitor, the Oklahoma News, and some time later, he moved to the Cleveland Press and then to the Indianapolis Times.
In 1938, Lee was appointed the editor of the Oklahoma News, the youngest person in the country in that position. In 1942, he joined the staff of The Miami Herald as a city editor, but shortly thereafter was named managing editor, a post he kept until 1951 when he became executive editor of both The Miami Herald and Detroit Free Press and remained in that position till 1979. As an editor for The Miami Herald, Lee directed the newspaper's coverage of mob bosses, living in the area, a series, called ''Know Your Neighbor'', which won that newspaper its first Pulitzer Prize. In 1956, Lee's reports on labour negotiations between the United Automobile Workers and automakers earned him the Pulitzer Prize for spot news coverage. It's also worth noting, that, in 1962, touring the Soviet Union with 12 editors - at the time he was president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors - he got nationwide attention, reporting an interview with the Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev.
In 1974, Hills helped merge Knight Newspapers Inc. and Ridder Publications Inc. into Knight Ridder, creating a newspaper company, that circulated the most papers in the country for a time. The same year, he was named first chairman and CEO of Knight Ridder and continued to hold these positions until his retirement in 1981. Lee also served as president of the Knight Ridder news service.
In addition, Lee co-wrote one book, titled "Facsimile", with Timothy J. Sullivan, in 1949.
Lee served as president of the Inter American Press Association and held the same post at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and American Society of Newspaper Editors.
Hills was an active philanthropist in both Detroit and Miami.
Quotes from others about the person
"Among journalists, he was a reporter, who never stopped being a reporter, even though he went on to be an executive and a publisher. But he retained his reporter's instincts and sensibility, and that motivated everything he did in his newspaper decisions.'' - Allen H. Neuharth
On December 25, 1933, Lee married Leona Hass, whom he divorced in 1944. Their marriage produced one child - Ronald L. Hills. Then, on June 7, 1948, Lee married Eileen (Whitman) Hills, who passed away in 1961. Later, on October 31, 1963, Hills married Tina Ramos Hills, his third wife.