Inducted 1998
Joe Stroud
editor, Detroit Free Press
For more than 24 years his editorials have mirrored Michigan. “There’s an aphorism that suggests that nothing contributes more to peace of soul than having no opinion at all. If that, indeed, is the price for a peaceful soul, it has no currency on the editorial pages over which Joe Stroud presides,” wrote Neal Shine, former publisher of the Detroit Free Press. Born in Arkansas in 1936, Stroud earned a B.A. degree in history and political science from Hendrix College and an M.A. in history from Tulane University. Stroud was a reporter and editorial writer for newspapers in Pine Bluff and Little Rock, Arkansas, and editor of the editorial page for theJournal and Sentinel in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. After joining the Free Press in 1968 as an associate editor, Stroud was appointed editor on June 1, 1973. Stroud has received numerous awards for his work, including the William White Award for editorial excellence five times, the Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award, the Associated Press Award for editorial excellence, the Distinguished Service Award from the Michigan Women’s Commission and the 1990 Detroit Press Club Foundation award for Editorial-Opinion/Print. He also was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1982. Stroud has been awarded honorary degrees from six Michigan colleges or universities: Adrian College, Central Michigan University, Eastern Michigan University, Kalamazoo College, Michigan State University and Olivet College. In 1978 he was named distinguished alumnus of Hendrix College. After announcing his retirement as editor, Stroud wrote, “I’ve been proud to be editor of the Free Press. I’ve has a lot of freedom, a lot of support and a wonderfully forgiving audience.”