William “Bill” Hale, former owner of the Grant County Herald Independent in Lancaster and several other community newspapers, died April 1, in Florida, following a long battle with cancer, the newspaper reported Thursday. He was 78.
A Missouri native, Hale was born Feb. 16, 1941, in Kansas City, Mo., to True and Corinne Inglish Hale. He attended Westminster College and later earned his master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.
Hale came to Wisconsin from Pleasant Hill, Mo., where he ran The Times, which won state and national awards during his tenure. He owned and published the Herald Independent for 18 years before selling his newspaper group to Morris Newspapers in 2002. At the time of the sale, he also owned The Boscobel Dial, (Gays Mills) Crawford County Independent, Fennimore Times and the Tri-County Press in Cuba City.
Former employees and colleagues remembered Hale as a great publisher, community supporter and friend. These qualities were reflected in an editorial Hale wrote for his first issue of the Herald Independent, the story points out. The editorial stated that while a newspaper was a business, it also must earn the public’s trust by providing the news, both good and bad.
Hale served as a director of The Columbia Missourian student newspaper, the Wisconsin Newspaper Association and the Grant County Economic Development Corporation, of which he also was president.
