Class of 1957
In a career spanning 47 years, Don Hatfield moved from part time sports writer at The Huntington Advertiser to publisher and regional vice president for Gannett. Hatfield has been a sports reporter, a news reporter, and managing editor of The Sunday Herald-Advertiser from 1972 to 1979, executive editor of The Huntington Herald-Dispatch from 1979 to 1982, and editor and publisher of The Herald-Dispatch and regional vice president in charge of four Ohio news operations and a Pennsylvania newspaper as well as The Herald-Dispatch. In 1986 Hatfield was named editor and publisher of The Tucson Citizen and also became regional vice president over newspapers in El Paso, Santa Fe, Tucson and the USA Today print site outside of Phoenix. It was from that position he retired in 2000. He also served on the Associated Press Managing Editors Board of Directors for six years. He was a member of the American Press Institute and won numerous writing awards. Hatfield worked on a number of indelible stories during his tenure with the Huntington newspapers including the 1970 Marshall football team plane crash, the Silver Bridge collapse at Point Pleasant, W. Va. and the Buffalo Creek flood. He broke the story of Hal Greer’s enrollment at Marshall University, bringing the school’s first black player to campus. Later, Hatfield would hire the first African-American reporter for the Huntington newspapers, Angela Dodson. Hatfield also has published short stories, numerous articles and three books, two about the newspaper business, Don Hatfield Cleans Out His Closet and Newspaperman: A Memoir, and a collection of short stories, A Pocketful of Cinders. He is the great-great-grandson of “Preacher Anse” Hatfield.
In a career spanning 47 years, Don Hatfield moved from part time sports writer at The Huntington Advertiser to publisher and regional vice president for Gannett. Hatfield has been a sports reporter, a news reporter, and managing editor of The Sunday Herald-Advertiser from 1972 to 1979, executive editor of The Huntington Herald-Dispatch from 1979 to 1982, and editor and publisher of The Herald-Dispatch and regional vice president in charge of four Ohio news operations and a Pennsylvania newspaper as well as The Herald-Dispatch. In 1986 Hatfield was named editor and publisher of The Tucson Citizen and also became regional vice president over newspapers in El Paso, Santa Fe, Tucson and the USA Today print site outside of Phoenix. It was from that position he retired in 2000. He also served on the Associated Press Managing Editors Board of Directors for six years. He was a member of the American Press Institute and won numerous writing awards. Hatfield worked on a number of indelible stories during his tenure with the Huntington newspapers including the 1970 Marshall football team plane crash, the Silver Bridge collapse at Point Pleasant, W. Va. and the Buffalo Creek flood. He broke the story of Hal Greer’s enrollment at Marshall University, bringing the school’s first black player to campus. Later, Hatfield would hire the first African-American reporter for the Huntington newspapers, Angela Dodson. Hatfield also has published short stories, numerous articles and three books, two about the newspaper business, Don Hatfield Cleans Out His Closet and Newspaperman: A Memoir, and a collection of short stories, A Pocketful of Cinders. He is the great-great-grandson of “Preacher Anse” Hatfield.
