J. DAVID HOGUE

Inducted: May 8, 1998

When J. David Hogue took over as publisher of the Utica, N.Y., Observer Dispatch and The Daily Press in 1937, he pledged to give his readers "accurate, informative, interesting and wholesome newspapers that would be welcomed alike by men, women and children of these communities." For the next 21 years, he did just that.

"Dave" Hogue began his newspaper career in 1926 in his hometown of Vincennes, Ind., as the publisher of the oldest paper west of the Alleghenies, The Evening Sun, which later became the Vincennes Sun-Commericial. In 1932 Hogue left to become the publisher of The North Jersey Courier, in Orange, N.J., where he stayed until 1935 when he moved to Chicago to join J.P. McKinney and Sons, the national advertising agency for Gannett newspapers. It was from this position that he was recruited by Frank E. Gannett in 1937 to go to Utica and oversee the two newspapers he would manage until his death in 1958.

In an article published after his death in The Daily Press, the editor wrote that "Hogue was not an ordinary person. There was nothing ordinary about him. His vital job of leading the three Utica newspapers through good times and bad over the last 20 years would have been more than enough for most people. But Mr. Hogue’s energy was amazing." In less than a decade after taking the helm, Hogue developed an organization that was known as one of the most progressive and efficient units in the Gannett Group, and his commitment to modernizing equipment and facilities was rare for the newspaper industry at that time.

Not only a respected publisher, Hogue also devoted long hours to working on dozens of civic projects "all calculated to make the Utica area bigger, better, more prosperous, and happier," and was lauded as a true "Utica-first man."

In 1957, Hogue was elected to the board of directors of the Gannett Corporation, Inc. In 1977, the J. David Hogue Journalism Scholarship was established by his wife, Mildred ‘21, and daughter, Margaret Hogue Corneilsen ‘56, to award to outstanding student journalists at DePauw University.

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