Golden 50 - 2025

Ruthanne Brockway
Fort Worth Star Telegram
Ruthanne Brockway has spent well over 50 years of her life as a journalist in Texas.
In June, 1970, only a few days after graduating from Terrell High School, she joined the staff of the The Tyler Morning Telegraph as youth editor and reporter.
In high school, she had worked on the school newspaper and part time at the Terrell Tribune.
She also had a weekly broadcast on KTER, the local radio station.
When she joined the Tyler newspaper staff, still only 17 years old, she was a beautiful brunette with wavy hair that flowed all the way down to the tip of her miniskirt.
Dan Eakin, who was wire editor at the Tyler paper at the time, said of her, “She was the best combination of beauty and brains that I had ever known.”
While at the Tyler paper, she dated William Dean Singleton, who would later purchase the Dallas Times Herald, the Denver Post and more than 50 other newspapers. Both were 18 and 19 years old at the time.
She took courses at Tyler Junior College and later graduated from El Centro Junior College in Dallas. She then studied journalism and took other courses at North Texas State University at Denton where she worked for the Denton Record-Chronicle.
Her journalist journeys in the 1980s included spending a few years in West Texas, with the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and El Paso News.
She came back to the DFW area late in the 1980s, first as editor of the Grand Prairie Daily News and then the Lewisville News.
She then spent more than two decades with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, first as a features copy editor and later as a news copy editor.
One of the highlights of her journalistic career was getting to teach a course in investigative reporting at North Texas State University.
Now at age 73, she is retired and living in the same home she purchased in Lewisville in the 1980s.
She continues to have an interest in journalism and keeps in close contact with many fellow journalists she has befriended during the past five or six decades.

Robert Cessna
The Eagle, Bryan
Robert Cessna says he’s never considered his job a job.
But the countless stacks of papers at his desk in The Eagle newsroom offer proof of half a century of hard work.
Cessna celebrated 50 years at The Eagle in February. For decades, Cessna, known by many as “Cease,” has sat in the back corner of the newsroom almost daily covering Brazos Valley high school sports, Texas A&M athletics, all-state teams, box scores and countless other subjects.
Often the last to leave the office, Cessna is known by his colleagues for the work ethic, integrity, modesty and of sense humor that have made him a pillar of sports coverage in the Bryan-College Station community and beyond.
“You don’t have to be around Cease long to know you’re around something special and that it’s probably going to be entertaining,” said former Eagle sports editor Robert Premeaux.
Taking a chance on himself When Cessna loaded up his car and headed to Texas from western Pennsylvania in August
1974, he had never been further west than Youngstown, Ohio.
Baseball was the only sport Cessna played at Shannock Valley High School in Rural Valley, Pennsylvania. His work in newspapers started in high school. He became a manager and statistician for the team’s successful basketball team and kept stats for the district that were printed once a week in the Kittaning Leader-Times.
He earned a teaching degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, studying European history and economics. As a student teacher, he also helped the baseball coach. He was offered a teaching position at the end of his apprenticeship, but declined. Texas sports journalism has been the beneficiary of that decision.
As a youngster, Cessna had read about Texas high school pitching phenom David Clyde, who took classes at Texas A&M. He decided after graduating from IUP that he would take some journalism classes. He applied to A&M and Missouri, picked A&M, and headed southwest.
When he arrived in Bryan-College Station, he began writing for The Battalion, A&M’s student newspaper, and also landed a part-time job on The Eagle’s sports desk. During the middle of his second semester, he stopped going to class when Eagle managing editor Jerry Waggoner and sports editor Joe Kammalah hired him full time on Feb. 25, 1975.
“I had no plans,” Cessna said of his move to Texas. “I just wanted to come down. I had no idea. I was just going to cover sports.…”
A pillar of Texas high school football The first thing former Eagle sports editor Premeaux thinks of regarding Cessna is Texas high
school football.
“He’s always been involved with Texas high school football in one way or another… I think he truly loved it,” Premeaux said.
For 30 years, high school sports were the bread and butter of Cessna’s coverage. He was named Sportswriter of the Year by the Texas High School Coaches Association in 1996-1997 and was inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
Marty Criswell served as Bryan’s head football coach from 1992-2003. Cessna was covering the Vikings when Criswell arrived.
Criswell said he was impressed that the sports editor of The Eagle chose to cover high school sports himself and assign a strong young staff to cover A&M athletics. Criswell said Cessna’s coverage showed his devotion to high school sports and his understanding of the importance of preps coverage.
“There’s a lot of places you can get Texas A&M, but where are you going to get the high school stuff?… I think that’s endearing to the community because the moms and dads in Bryan-College Station and the schools that they cover – Navasota, Caldwell, etc. – they know that their kids are getting a fair shake in coverage and you can’t get that in other places,” Criswell said.
“You can get the A&M stuff from a lot of different sources, but the high school kids? You get that from The Bryan-College Station Eagle.”
Covering the Aggies 
When Gary Blair had his first press conference as Texas A&M’s head women’s basketball coach in 2003, Cessna was there to cover it. Blair was impressed. He recalls thinking: “He’s the sports editor.”
“Normally, you don’t get the sports editor covering women’s basketball, and I thought that was a tribute to him,” Blair said.
Cessna said he knew Blair would take the A&M program to new heights. He covered the Aggies’ run to the Elite 8 in 2008, then covered the Aggies’ run to the national championship in 2011.
Cessna moved to covering A&M football and other sports full time in 2004. A&M football is now his primary beat.
Staying at home
There was once a time Cessna had a chance to leave The Eagle for another daily. He chose to stay in Bryan-College Station.
“When I became sports editor here, I thought, ‘What more could I want?’ I’m covering a big university, going to all these places to cover football games. Just never really thought about going anywhere. It became home.”
Criswell said he believes Cessna has a hall of fame legacy. Whereas coaches have coaching trees, Criswell mentioned Cessna’s reporting tree and how he has given younger reporters the wings to fly.
Reporters who have worked under Cessna at The Eagle include Charean Williams, a longtime NFL reporter who is honored at the Pro Football Hall of Fame; Brent Zwerneman, who recently retired as longtime A&M sportswriter for the Houston Chronicle; TexAgs.com’s Olin Buchanan and KBTX television’s Travis L. Brown.
“He’s a man of faith and family and that comes through in the way he does his work, the way he lives his life,” Criswell said, “and I hope everybody would recognize what a blessing it is to have him share his life and his profession with this community.”

Rick Craig
The Daily Sentinel
Rick Craig’s journey in the newspaper industry began at just four years old when he worked at the Hamlin Herald, a newspaper owned by his parents, Bob and Barbara Craig. His first job—”killing out” hot type pages—earned him 10 cents per page, with a production rate of one page per day.
Growing up, Craig spent much of his time in the back shop of the Herald, where he learned the trade by pouring pigs, “watching” presses, and bagging newspapers for mailing. His grandfather, Roy Craig, was part-owner of the Herald and owned the neighboring Stamford American, further solidifying the family’s deep roots in the newspaper industry.
During junior high and high school, Craig began shooting sports photography alongside his father. While attending Texas Tech University, he worked part-time at Tech Press for three years. He then moved to Houston, where he spent six months as a second pressman on a four-color press for Whetmore and Company.
In 1979, Craig returned to Hamlin, where he resumed shooting photos, covering sports, and managing the commercial printing department at the Herald. When his father unexpectedly passed away in 1981, he and his mother stepped up to lead the newspaper. With support from fellow publishers and staff, they ensured the Herald continued publication while growing into
their leadership roles.

Craig was an early adopter of technology in the industry. The Herald was among the first Texas newspapers to transition to Apple computers and desktop publishing. As more newspapers made the switch, Craig launched a business selling and installing Apple computers while training newspaper teams statewide.
Craig was actively involved in his community. He served as president of the West Texas Press Association, the Hamlin Lions Club, and the Hamlin Economic Development Corporation, while also holding a board position with the Rolling Plains Industrial Foundation.
In 1998, Craig joined the Hood County News in Granbury, initially managing the company’s dial-up internet service before shifting into the role of advertising director. His responsibilities extended beyond sales, as he played a key role in nearly all other departments from IT to press operations.
His contributions to the industry were recognized when the WTPA honored him with the Dewayne Kelly Friend of the Newspaper Award in 2004.
Craig joined Southern Newspapers as publisher of The Daily Sentinel in Nacogdoches in June 2018. Under his leadership, the paper continues its tradition of excellence in state and regional journalism contests.
In 2019, he served as president of the North and East Texas Press Association and was honored with the Tom Mooney Friend of the Newspaper Award in 2021.
His dedication to the industry extended to board service, where he was a Texas Press Association director during his tenure as a regional press association president and vice president. He has served as an appointed TPA director for the past six years.
In Nacogdoches, Craig has been a Chamber of Commerce vice chair for three years, a member of the Nacogdoches Rotary Club, and a graduate of Leadership Nac.
Craig and his wife of 45 years, Jill, have two sons: Josh Craig and his wife Traci of Paris, Texas, and Dr. Clay Craig of Buda. They take great joy in being “Gram and Bogie” to their grandchildren, Kallen, 13, and Hadley, 10.
Craig is a third-generation recipient of the Golden 50 Award, joining his late grandfather, Roy Craig (1978) and his mother, Barbara Craig Kelly (2008)
Reflecting on his career, Craig cherishes the relationships built at regional and TPA conventions. “As a kid, the conventions were our vacations and a family reunion rolled into one,” he said. “They still are a place where we share stories, solve problems, and work toward our shared goal of strengthening our communities by providing high quality community journalism.”

Clyde King
Rosenberg, The Fort Bend Herald
Clyde King received a journalism degree from the University Texas in 1969, and he began his newspaper career later that year at The Baytown Sun.
King had stints at other sister newspapers, The Bayshore Sun, Deer Park Progress and The Terrell Tribune, before becoming publisher of The Kaufman Herald in 1971.
In 1973, he became publisher of The Katy Times.
The Times became a part of Hartman Newspapers in 1974. While continuing to publish the Katy paper, King was named vice president of Hartman Newspapers in 1980 and senior vice president in 1985, when he joined the then Herald-Coaster in Rosenberg as editor and publisher 
King was named president of Hartman Newspapers in June 2006 and became chairman of the company in February 2020.
King is a past director of the Texas Press Association and former president of the Richmond Rotary Club.
He was president of the Rosenberg-Richmond Area Chamber of Commerce in 1989, and during his tenure founded what is now the Lamar Educational Awards Foundation.
He and wife Libby live in Richmond and they have a son James, 16. Clyde also has a daughter Myles Naso, who has made him a grandfather to Ethan, 12, and twins Owen and Elle, 6.

Candace Velvin
Texas Press Association
Candace Velvin took her first journalism course as a sophomore at Robert E. Lee High School in Houston, built just five years before her class of 1973 attended. She also worked on the school newspaper, the Traveler, named for General Lee’s horse. The school no longer exists.
Her choice of vocation was sealed after hearing a presentation by an obituary writer/reporter from the Houston Chronicle, who apparently drew the short straw and was tasked with inspiring young students to consider journalism on career day in 1971.
Velvin majored in journalism at the University of Houston, known then as a commuter school with 45,000 students. Her first paying newspaper job was as news editor for the UH Daily Cougar starting in 1975. Certain editor positions came with student stipends because the four-day-a-week daily required staff to work nights after classes during the day.
Farris Block, known as a director and active member of TPA in the 1950s and 60s, was still on the UH journalism faculty in the mid-1970s, as was the first black professor in the university’s history: George McElroy, a trail-blazing black journalist through the 1950s and 1960s who later headed the journalism department at Texas Southern University for many years. He was
inducted into the Texas Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2020. His daughter Kathleen McElroy, a former editor at the New York Times and of several Texas newspapers, is a prominent member of the faculty at the University of Texas.
Velvin’s first post-graduation job was a short stint as a “go-for” with the Houston Chronicle’s retail advertising department in 1978. The Chronicle was located in downtown Houston then, across from the legendary Rice Hotel and just a lunchtime, 10-cent bus ride away from the flagship locations for Foleys/Sanger Harris, Woolworths, Sakowitz and many others. Another Texas Newspaper Hall of Fame inductee, Richard J.V. Johnson, was publisher of the Chronicle at the time. As an assistant to the secretaries and switchboard operator working for Retail Ad Manager Marvin Ivie and his 45 sales people, Velvin learned much about the advertising
industry during that brief eight months - including that she wanted no further part of it.
Later in 1978, Velvin landed a reporter job with the Daily Sentinel in Nacogdoches, working for Editor and Publisher Victor B. Fain, another Texas Newspaper Hall of Fame inductee, class of 2018. While there, she worked with one of Fain’s future successors as Daily Sentinel publisher, Gary Borders. Moving up first to “head of the department of news primarily of interest to
women,” as Fain called it, she became news editor in 1985.
While enjoying working for a locally owned newspaper, Velvin decided joining a company with multiple newspapers might provide an opportunity for movement and promotion. In 1987, she joined the staff of The Light and Champion, a twice-weekly in Center, 30 miles east of Nacogdoches. At that time, the newspaper was owned by PTS, Inc., part of the Smith group based in Fort Payne, Alabama. She served as managing editor until late 1995, when PTS sent her to her first publishing position with the Bowling Green Times in Pike County, Missouri, a small town 30 north of Hannibal and 70 miles from St. Louis. After serving there for five years,
she returned in Center in 2001, this time as editor and publisher of The Light and Champion.
Velvin joined Granite Publications in 2005, helping transition the recently purchased Diboll Free Press into the Granite group. The Free Press was printed by the Lufkin Daily News, where Borders was publisher at the time.
In 2006, she was named editor and publisher of the Cameron Herald in Cameron, moving to Central Texas. She was also editor and publisher of two sister Milam-Falls County Newspapers, LLC, publications, the Thorndale Champion and the Rosebud News. During more than a decade with Granite, she also served stints with two other company newspapers, the Boerne
Star and the Taylor Daily Press.

In 2016, a year after the Cameron Herald was acquired by Moser Community Newspapers, Velvin left community newspaper publishing to join the staff of the Texas Press Association, serving as publication manger, editor of the Texas Press Messenger and contest coordinator.
During her career, the newspapers she published and edited earned many awards with both the Texas and Missouri press associations, including general excellence, sweepstakes, community coverage and special sections. Personally, she has won awards for column writing, editorial writing and photography in regional and state press association contests.
“Keeping up with and serving Texas newspapers on the TPA staff has been a great calling in this period of my career,” Velvin said. “I happily continue with no plans for retirement.”