LA CROSSE – Merle Hill, a former news editor who worked for 35 years at the La Crosse Tribune, celebrated his 100th birthday on Saturday, Dec. 22.
(Photo by Steve Rundio, Tomah Journal)
Hill, who was born on a dairy farm in Tomah, graduated from Marquette University. During his college years, Hill worked for the school newspaper, yearbook and literary magazine.
After starting his career at the Muskegon (Michigan) Chronicle, Hill joined the U.S. Army in January 1941. Shortly after the war, he married Lt. Anne Marie Daly, an Army nurse.
Following his discharge in 1945, Hill returned to Tomah and was hired as a government reporter at the Tribune. Hill told the Tribune his most memorable stories were sensational murder cases, including two that remain unsolved more than 65 years later.
Hill later became a news editor for the Tribune, a role in which he mentored many young reporters. He retired in 1981 and moved back to the farm in Tomah, where he wrote columns for the Tomah Journal.
