HOUSTON — The Texas Newspaper Foundation launched the inaugural Hall of Fame Jan. 19 and inducted four industry pioneers and leaders into the first class — Alfred Horatio Belo, Staley McBrayer, Roy J. Eaton and James Roberts.

The Foundation spent more than a year working to establish the Hall of Fall to honor  men and women of Texas whose clearly outstanding achievements and contributions to their communities and the newspaper industry in the Lone Star State may or may not have been duly regarded in their own time.

The Foundation appointed a panel of five esteemed newspaper men and women to choose the inaugural set of honorees from a field of 40 nominees. The panelists: Hondo Anvil Herald publisher Bill Berger, Gilmer Mirror publisher Sarah L. Greene, Graham Newspapers Inc. publisher Roy Robinson, chairman of the Texas Press Association board of directors Judy Johnson and University of Texas journalism professor Wanda Garner Cash.

Alfred Horatio Belo — After serving with distinction in the Confederate army during the Civil War, Belo made his way to Galveston in 1865 as a bookkeeper for The Galveston Daily News.

After six months, Belo purchased an interest in the newspaper. By 1868, Belo owned a half-interest and in 1876 became sole owner. He renamed the firm A.H. Belo & Company in 1881. He built a modern printing plant and initialized the use of railroads to distribute the newspaper statewide.

In 1885, Belo sent George Bannerman Dealey to start a sister newspaper in Dallas, creating the nation ’s first newspaper chain. Belo was one of the founders of The Associated Press.

He died at his family’s summer home in Asheville, N.C., in 1901 at age 62.

Roy J. Eaton — Eaton, president and publisher of the Wise County Messenger, a twice-weekly newspaper in Decatur, worked his way up from part-time reporter at his college radio station to anchor of the NBC affiliate television station in Dallas-Fort Worth.

In 1973 he returned to his hometown and purchased the Messenger. Since then, the newspaper has increased in size from a 2,500-circulation weekly to a 7,000-plus circulation twice-weekly. Under his guidance, The Messenger has become one of the nation’s most award-winning community newspapers.

Eaton served as president of the National Newspaper Association in 1996-97 and Texas Press Association in 1987-88. For the past 40 years, Eaton has served as a livestock show and parade announcer for the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show in Fort Worth.

Staley Thomas McBrayer — McBrayer’s innovative lithographic reproduction technique moved newspapers out of the hot type era and into the age of cold type.

From 1947 to 1952, McBrayer Publishing Company conducted experiments in adapting an offset press to newspaper production. In 1953, McBrayer took the production specifications he had developed to the Grant Ghormley engineering firm and engaged them to build a newspaper offset press, the Vanguard Press.

McBrayer published the Arlington and Grand Prairie Daily News-Texan, a daily at Hurst-Euless; the semiweekly Irving News-Record; and weeklies at Haltom City and Richland Hills.

He also served as national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, 1967-68. He was listed as one of the “50 Most Influential Newspaper People of the 20th Century” by Editor & Publisher magazine in 1999.

James Roberts — Roberts was publisher of the Andrews County News and chairman of Roberts Publishing Co., owner of newspapers in Andrews, Azle, Brownfield, Copperas Cove, Gatesville, Granbury, Hereford, Lamesa, Quanah, Seminole, Springtown, Snyder and Vernon, at the time of his death in December 1997.

Roberts was president of Texas Press Association in 1980-81. His column, Drifting Sands, appeared on the front page of every edition of the News for 47 years. He was a civic leader, instrumental in building a community hospital.

He was drafted into the U.S. Army in World War II and was wounded and captured by enemy forces at Anzio. He was a prisoner of war for 53 weeks.