Texas Newspaper Foundation names four to Hall of Fame

AUSTIN — Four legendary journalists — George Dolan (deceased), Robert Moore, Greg Shrader (retired) and Ed Sterling (retired) — will be inducted in the Texas Newspaper Foundation Hall of Fame this summer.
The honorees were chosen by the Texas Newspaper Foundation, which created the hall of fame in 2006. Since then, inductees have been chosen for outstanding achievements and contributions to the newspaper industry and to their communities. This year’s ceremony will take place at 12:30 p.m. Friday, July 29, during the Texas Press Association 2022 Convention and Trade Show at Embassy Suites by Hilton San Marcos Convention Center and Spa. The Hall of Fame Banquet is sponsored by Explore Branson.

GEORGE DOLAN
Fort Worth Star-Telegram Columnist - Deceased
Sept. 24, 1923 - Nov. 26, 1988
George Dolan may have been Forth Worth Star-Telegram’s face to West Texas, but his persona wriggled its way to readers east of the Pecos, too.
Dolan was a beloved humorist with a cackling laugh said to be in E Flat and a wit as dry as Texas sand. He parlayed this humor in his daily column for more than 30 years.
George Bernard Dolan was born in Temple in 1923. By age 16 he was working at the Temple Daily Telegram. World War II made him a B-17 navigator, and he returned to the Daily Telegram after the war. He became a general assignment reporter at the Star-Telegram in 1948. His page-one column, initially headlined “This is West Texas,” began in 1957. Later, the column carried simply his name.
Dolan covered it all – stock shows, rodeos, farm and ranch news, political speeches and even Fort Worth’s gangland crime in the 1950s. This was the final decade of Amon Carter’s leadership at the Star-Telegram, when Carter decreed that the paper’s domain would include “every farmer and rancher, every pump jack and jackrabbit … after all, Fort Worth is where the West begins.”
Dolan wrote many times about the “Brownwood Mafia.” When asked if it was the real mafia or civic group, Dolan responded: “It bears some resemblance to both. While it may lack some of the killer instinct of your average civic booster group, it does have all the charm of the real Mafia.”
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram/George Dolan Memorial Scholarship is awarded at Texas Christian University each year.
Dolan died at his home after battling cancer on Nov. 26, 1988 at the age of 65. He wrote his column until a few months before his death.

ROBERT MOORE
El Paso Matters, El Paso Times
Robert Moore has spent most of his 39-year journalism career on the Texas-New Mexico border working as a reporter, editor and journalistic entrepreneur.
Moore’s Texas journalism career began in 1986, when he was hired as an assistant city editor at the El Paso Times. He went on to become city editor, assistant managing editor, managing editor, executive editor and editor/vice president of the Times. He was steadfastly community-focused in his leadership.
Moore resigned as editor of the Times in 2017 during downsizing at the paper. In 2018 and 2019, Moore’s work as a freelance reporter uncovered numerous stories about the impact of President Trump’s border enforcement policies. His reporting on the border has been featured by the Washington Post, ProPublica, NPR, the Guardian and Texas Monthly.
His most notable work has focused on migrant children in government custody. His extensive coverage in 2018 of the Tornillo child detention facility kept that issue in the public eye and was cited by members of Congress as a key factor in the closure of the tent city.
Although Moore built a successful national freelance practice, he remained concerned about the decline in local news in El Paso. In February 2020, he launched El Paso Matters as a one-man nonprofit, nonpartisan news operation. Because of his reputation in the community and in national journalism circles, Moore was able to raise money quickly for expansion. Two years after it began publishing, El Paso Matters has a staff of 11 employees and continues to grow.
The award-winning journalist is also an active volunteer in his community, a mentor to many journalists and speaks regularly with high school and college students interested in journalism.
He has been married since 1990 to Kate Gannon, a veteran journalist who is now an associate professor of multimedia journalism at the University of Texas at El Paso and director of Borderzine.com.

GREG SHRADER
Southern Newspapers, Inc. - Retired
Greg Shrader is no stranger to Texas Press Association or the Texas Newspaper Foundation. He has served as president of TPA, is currently the president of the Texas Newspaper Foundation and was the president for the Texas Daily Newspaper Association.
Shrader was the consummate newspaperman at eight Texas newspapers — Houston Chronicle, Bryan/College Station Eagle, Abilene Reporter-News, Galveston County Daily News, Kerrville Daily Times, Del Rio News-Herald, Lufkin Daily News and Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel. He immersed himself within those communities – serving in leadership positions with economic development boards, women’s shelters, Salvation Army, convention and visitors bureaus, chambers of commerce, hospital boards and United Way.
A 1974 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in advertising from the College of Communications, Shrader began his newspaper career selling advertising at the Houston Chronicle. In 1978 he returned to the university for graduate studies in journalism, promotion and marketing.
Shrader is a past president of the Texas Newspaper Advertising Managers association and is one of only two people to serve as president of both TDNA and TPA. He also served as a board member with the West Texas Press Association. He has led seminars and has presented at meetings of the International Newspaper Marketing and Advertising Executives association, Southern Newspaper Publishers Association, and TDNA and TPA meetings and conferences.
Shrader mentored numerous newspaper professionals during his time in the industry and taught journalism for 15 years at Schreiner University in Kerrville.
He and his wife Laura received Kerrville’s highest honor as co-recipients of the Bill Dozier Award as Citizens of the Year. He received The Frank Mayborn Award for Community Service from the TDNA. He also received the Harte-Hanks President’s Award in 1988.

ED STERLING
Texas Press Association, Texas Press Messenger, retired
Canyon News, Tulia Herald, Amarillo Globe-News, Alpine Avalanche
Ed Sterling served as TPA’s member services director. In that role, he provided a wealth of information to members of the Texas Press Association. At some point during his 28 years at TPA, most publishers and editors across the state contacted him with questions and to seek his opinion on publishing matters.
Sterling painstakingly researched open government handbooks, pored over attorney general opinions and kept a vigil for regulatory agencies’ rulings that impacted the newspaper industry. He became the go-to source for answers on everything from advertising raffles and lotteries to open records and meetings. He wasn’t an attorney, but was happy to cite Texas statutes that might be relevant and point members to legal professionals when needed.
Sterling served as TPA’s member services director. He also handled all TPA’s publications, including the monthly Texas Press Messenger, eBulletin and web news. He coordinated the Texas Better Newspaper Contest for many years. He planned and coordinated the annual conventions as well.
He also worked hard on behalf of Texas newspapers at the Capitol. As a member of Texas Media, predecessor to the TPA Legislative Advisory Committee, he was instrumental in weekly bill-crunching sessions at the Texas Association of Broadcasters offices, at the TDNA offices or at TPA headquarters in Austin. He printed bills for the Legislative Advisory Committee to study, made calls, filed forms at legislative hearings stating TPA’s positions on bills, and sometimes testified.
A native of Austin, Sterling attended the University of North Texas in Denton in the 1970s before going into the Coast Guard. Following his service, he worked for several newspapers in Texas – as publisher of the Tulia Herald, copy editor at the Amarillo Globe-News, and as publisher of the Alpine Avalanche.
Sterling received numerous awards during his tenure at TPA, including the Red Gibson Friend of South Texas Press Association in 2008.
After his retirement, Sterling and his wife Gayle, whom he met in college in Denton, relocated to Fort Worth to be closer to family, including children and grandchildren.