George G. Hoole
1883 – 1960

Inducted August 18, 1972

George Gilbert Hoole became a journalist at age 41 after an impressive career as an educator. He bought the Glendive Dawson County Review in 1924 and in the next quarter of a century built it into one of the state’s most highly regarded – and most frequently honored – weekly newspapers.

Hoole was born Dec. 30, 1883, in Chico, Calif., the son of a newspaperman who had come West during the 1849 gold rush. Hoole’s parents died while he was a boy, and he subsequently worked at various jobs to finance his education at Pacific Coast College at San Jose, Calif. He received a degree in commerce and education and later attended Zanerian Art College at Columbus, Ohio, and the graduate school at the University of Chicago.

Hoole came to Montana in 1909 and in 1912 moved to Glendive to join the faculty at Dawson County High School. Except for one year in the Army in World War I, he taught at Glendive until 1920, when he was appointed principal of the high school.

In addition to the Dawson County Review, Hoole owned the Glendive Independent and published the Glendive Daily News four days a week. During the 1930s and 1940s the Dawson County Review was honored consistently at Montana Press Association conventions. It was named the best weekly in the state in 1935; that same year its editorial page was designated the best in the state – the first time one newspaper had won two of the three top awards presented at the convention. It also was named the best weekly in Montana in 1940.

Hoole taught generations of Glendive boys and girls to play tennis. He served for 25 years without pay as the high school tennis coach, and during that time Glendive became known as the “tennis capital of Montana,” owing to the numerous victories of its teams. Hoole won the senior single’s championship of Montana for nine straight years, and his widow noted that “he played tennis until the day of his death.”

In 1945 he was elected vice president of the Montana Press Association and was elected president in 1946. He believed the press should report education news in depth, and the columns of the Dawson County Review reflected that opinion. At the same time, his editorials could be critical and demanding in their assessment of the city and county school systems.

Hoole died Oct. 13, 1960, in Mesa, Ariz. He is remembered as an incorrigible optimist, a progressive, an educator, a civic leader – and as an editor who required and achieved excellence in his newspaper.

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