1946-47 Walter R. Humphrey Fort Worth Press

Walter R. Humphrey, 69th president, also was national president of Sigma Delta Chi, the Society of Professional Journalists.

Humphrey was born March 13, 1904, at Trenton, Mo. He received his degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and was editor of the student newspaper and the humor magazine.

He became editor and pressman for his high school when a printer, who had been sentenced to the penitentiary, gave him two cases of type and a foot press.

After graduation, he was hired as a reporter for the Fort Worth Press, where he advanced to assistant city editor. He served three and a half years with the Press before becoming editor of the Temple Daily Telegram.

He and wife Dorothea Griffith had three daughters.

Three different governors of Texas named Humphrey to the board of the Brazos River Authority.

Humphrey is listed in the description of a photo in the collection of the JFK Presidential Library and Museum, taken in the White House on Oct. 27, 1961. Humphrey was in a group of other Texas newspaper publishers attending a private luncheon in the State Dining Room with President John F. Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger. Publishers present included S.B. Whittenburg, publisher of The Amarillo News-Globe and Globe-Times; Pat Taggart, publisher of The Waco News-Tribune and Times-Herald (back to camera); Frank Mayborn, publisher of The Temple Telegram (back to camera); Rhea Howard, publisher of The Wichita Falls Record-News and Times (back to camera); O. Eugene Davis, President of The Enterprise and Journal; James F. Chambers, Jr., President of The Dallas Times; Dudley Dougherty, publisher of La Prensa (mostly hidden); Walter R. Humphrey, President of The Fort Worth Press (mostly hidden); James Roberts, publisher of The Andrews County News; C.C. Woodson, publisher of The Brownwood Bulletin (mostly hidden); Dorrance D. Roderick, publisher of The El Paso Times; John T. Jones, Jr., President of The Houston Chronicle; Conway C. Craig, publisher of The Corpus Christi Caller-Times; Houston Harte, publisher of The San Angelo Standard-Times; R.H. Whitten, publisher of The Navasota Examiner-Review; President John F. Kennedy; Doris Wesley, Vice President of The Houston Informer; Ted Dealey, publisher of The Dallas Morning News; Colonel B.J. Horner, publisher of The San Antonio Light; Howard McMahon, publisher of The Abilene Reporter-News. Link to a second photo taken from another angle.

Jerry Ray Stringer wrote the 222-page book, "Mr. Home Towner: A Biography of Walter R. Humphreys, Editor of the Fort Worth Press." The volume was published by East Texas State University in 1966.

Humphrey died in Fort Worth on Aug. 24, 1971.