Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and honor Howard H. ``Tim'' Hays who recently passed away at the age of 94. He will be deeply missed. Mr. Hays spent 51 years at the Riverside Press Enterprise, the sixth largest newspaper in the…
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and honor Howard H. ``Tim'' Hays who recently passed away at the age of 94. He will be deeply missed.
Mr. Hays spent 51 years at the Riverside Press Enterprise, the sixth largest newspaper in the state of California. Before coming to the newspaper, Mr. Hays was an FBI Special Agent during World War II. In 1946, he joined the paper as an Assistant Editor and also passed the California bar exam. The Riverside Press Enterprise wrote an article detailing the many accomplishments of Mr. Hays and the incredible contributions he made to the newspaper, the community and the country.
[Oct. 14, 2011]
Former P-E Publisher and Editor Tim Hays Dies
Howard H. ``Tim'' Hays, Jr., the Harvard-educated lawyer
who chose a newspaperman's life and led what became The
Press-Enterprise into national prominence as a Pulitzer
Prize-winning advocate of open government and defender of the
First Amendment, died Friday in St. Louis. He was 94.
Mr. Hays had been struggling with Alzheimer's disease, his
son Tom Hays said Friday. He said his father died in the
afternoon at Barnes-Jewish Hospital following a brief acute
illness.
Mr. Hays spent 51 years at The Press-Enterprise. He was an
FBI special agent during World War II and joined the
newspaper as assistant editor in 1946. He passed the bar the
same year but never practiced law.
His subsequent roles included editor, co-publisher,
publisher and chairman. He continued as chairman until 1997,
when The Press-Enterprise was sold to the A.H. Belo Co.,
ending 67 years of family ownership of the Riverside-based
newspaper.
The news organization's five-story office on Fourteenth
Street was named in 2006 as the Howard H. ``Tim'' Hays Media
Center.
``Tim was a rarity, a man whose moral compass was set on
true,'' said Mel Opotowsky, the former managing editor of The
Press-Enterprise. ``That is especially important as a
newspaper owner because of the obligation as a public trust.
There are many instances of Tim's beneficence, not only to
his employees, but to his readers and to principles of
quality journalism.''
Mr. Hays once joked that his choice of journalism over law
and his ``semi-meteoric rise'' at the newspaper were due to
``diligence, and the fact that my father was co-owner.''
Courtly, soft-voiced and with a penchant for remembering
anyone's name, from civic leaders to cleaning crews in the
hallways of his newspaper, Mr. Hays' personality contrasted
sharply with flamboyant news-executive contemporaries. His
memos were to his ``Fellow Employees.''
But his reserved manner was matched with a steely resolve.
He stood up to pressure and confrontation to lead his
newspaper to a Pulitzer Prize. He took two open-government
cases to the U.S. Supreme Court, winning both.
Media attorneys use shorthand to refer to two landmark
cases won by the newspaper, Press-Enterprise One and Two.
In January 1984, the newspaper won a case establishing the
public's right to attend jury selection in criminal trial
proceedings. In a 1986 case, the court asserted the right of
the public to attend pre-trial hearings in criminal cases
with few exceptions.
Mr. Hays oversaw publication of a series of articles in
1967 that exposed malpractice in the conservatorship program
for Agua Caliente Indians in Palm Springs. Editorials
combined with more than 100 stories, mostly written by
reporter George Ringwald, earned the newspaper the Pulitzer
Prize for meritorious public service in 1968. (Ringwald died
in 2005.)
During the newspaper's reporting of that issue, a judge who
was under investigation became infuriated by a Press-
Enterprise editorial and ordered Mr. Hays arrested.
The publisher stood his ground and was not jailed.
Mr. Hays also stood by his reporters, even as advertisers
took their business away in protest over investigative
pieces.
Despite national recognition, Mr. Hays kept his community
at the foreground of his work. He was among the civic leaders
who worked to get a University of California campus
established here. UC Riverside opened in 1954.
``Tim had a very active mind that saw beyond the ordinary
but was able to bring it down to earth,'' said his former
executive secretary, Jean Wingard. ``He was an excellent
newsman, and had the respect of those who worked with him and
for him.''
Mr. Hays established the Hays Press-Enterprise Lecture in
1966, which was underwritten in 1998 by a $100,000 endowment
after the newspaper was sold.
The free lectures, open to the public, featured leaders in
news media, including retired Washington Post Executive
Editor Ben Bradlee; Gene Roberts, former managing editor of
the New York Times; and W. Thomas Johnson, who was then
president of Cable News Network.
Mr. Hays also undertook the cause of preserving the Mission
Inn.
He and other civic leaders maintained their effort during a
seven-year stretch in which the state and national historic
landmark in downtown Riverside was closed--at one time
surrounded by a chain-link fence.
Several attempts to reopen the Inn failed. Some suggested
the land was a prime spot for a parking lot. In 1992, Duane
Roberts bought the hotel and invested millions of dollars in
renovations.
The Press-Enterprise under Mr. Hays also quietly helped to
underwrite local cultural and arts organizations.
``I'm not married to any cause,'' Mr. Hays once said. ``I
believe in generosity to the community in which you live. I
think you can contribute more with time and energy than with
dollars. But I guess the money can be pretty dandy, too.''
Retired appellate court Justice John Gabbert said Mr. Hays,
similar to his brothers, developed his sense of community
engagement early in life.
``He was motivated by the very strong civic background that
he probably inherited from his father,'' Gabbert said Friday.
``They were all there, out in the community, making it
better.''
Contemporaries of Mr. Hays said he was less likely to
deliver a fiery speech, and more likely to argue his points
over lunch or in a casual conversation. Former state Sen.
Robert Presley said each time he would meet Mr. Hays at the
same downtown Riverside restaurant, the publisher would prod
him for support of downtown Riverside projects.
``He didn't seem to have a lot of ego, although he could be
vigorous and persuasive in his arguments,'' Presley said
Friday from Sacramento.
``He was a very special person,'' said Marcia McQuern who
worked for Hays at The Press-Enterprise and eventually became
the paper's publisher. ``He had a true journalist's heart. He
always tried to live up to his standards and ideals.''
McQuern remembered Hays being well tied into the community.
So much so that he often knew what was going on before his
reporters did.
``I would come to him with a story and he'd say, `You
finally found that out,' '' she said. ``But he never would
kill anything.''
Even when it may have been unpopular among the community
leaders he mingled with.
``He took a lot of heat. He really stuck by the newsroom.
That's where his heart was,'' she said.
McQuern remembered one instance where the paper wanted the
name behind a large anonymous donation to UC Riverside.
``We fought for access,'' she said. ``He let us go fight
for the information. We were about to file suit and he
finally admitted it was him.''
Howard H. ``Tim'' Hays, Jr. was born in Chicago on June 2,
1917, the son of Howard H. Hays, Sr. and Margaret Mauger
Hays. He came to Riverside with his parents in 1924.
A graduate of Riverside Polytechnic High School, he was
editor of the school newspaper, Poly Spotlight, during his
senior year.
Mr. Hays earned a bachelor's degree in social sciences at
Stanford University, graduating in 1939.
In 1942, he received a law degree from Harvard Law School.
After his service with the FBI, he briefly served as a
reporter at the San Bernardino Sun before joining the family
newspaper and beginning his leadership role in American
journalism.
Mr. Hays moved to St. Louis part time in 1989, and began
living there full time after his retirement from The Press-
Enterprise, his son Tom said.
In a message read at the 2007 dedication of the news
building named after him, Mr. Hays noted that he still read
every day the newspaper that he had led for so long.
Survivors include wife Susie Hays of St. Louis, sons Bill
Hays of Corona Del Mar and Tom Hays of New York City, and
brother Dan Hays of Riverside. His brother, William H. Hays,
died earlier this year. Mr. Hays' first wife, Helen Hays
Yeager, died two years earlier, to the day, of Mr. Hays'
death.
Said Tom Hays, ``He lived a very long and productive and
fortunate life, and he died very peacefully, so we are
thankful for that.''
Mr. Hays will always be remembered for his incredible work
ethic, generosity, love of
family, and the numerous contributions he made to the
newspaper industry. His dedication to the integrity of the
newspaper, the protection of the First Amendment and to the
community as a whole are a testament to a life lived well and
a legacy that will continue. I extend my condolences to Mr.
Hays' family and friends. Although Mr. Hays may be gone, the
light and goodness he brought to the world remain and will
never be forgotten.