Sanders H.B. “Sandy” Hook’s entire 30-year career as a newspaperman was with Lee Enterprises, starting in 1965 in advertising at the Quad City Times in Davenport, Iowa. He transferred to the La Crosse Tribune a year later where he worked in the circulation, editorial and accounting departments before advancing to systems coordinator in 1970 and general manager in 1973.
Throughout the next decade, Hook worked as general manager and publisher at the Bismarck Tribune in North Dakota and as publisher of the Herald & Review in Decatur, Ill. He returned to the La Crosse Tribune as publisher in 1987 and became newspaper group manager in 1990. He retired in 1995.
Hook died May 26, 2013, of esophageal cancer. He was born in Mason City, Iowa, attended schools in Davenport and graduated from the University of Colorado in 1961. Prior to his work with Lee, he served four years as a communications officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, attaining the rank of captain and working at Marine bases in California, North Carolina and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
He and his wife had three children and seven grandchildren.
