Five journalists inducted into Missouri Press Association Hall of Fame

COLUMBIA — Bob Blosser, who began more than 50 years in journalism as a young printer's apprentice with the Jefferson City News Tribune, was among five inductees Thursday to the Missouri Press Association Hall of Fame.

Blosser, a photographer and photo engraver, enlisted as a military photographer during World War II. He later served as a photographer and president of the News Tribune. He retired in 1984, but continued to serve on the newspaper's board of directors until earlier this year when the company was sold.

Joining Blosser in the hall:

• Wally Lage, chief operating officer of Rust Communications and widely regarded as a fierce advocate for local news. An MU journalism school graduate, Lage rose from sports editor to publisher of the Boonville Daily News. He also was publisher for newspapers owned by Winsor Newspapers before joining the Paxton Media Group where he was general manager of the Paducah (Ky.) Sun.
• Chuck Haney, the mayor of Chillicothe and past publisher of the Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune. Haney, a past MPA president who delivered newspapers at age 9, worked in local radio before covering sports for the Constitution-Tribune in 1964. He was named publisher in 1980 and held the job until leaving the paper in 1998. He served on the city council before becoming Chillicothe's mayor in 2007, and is known to many as the comic master of ceremonies at MPA Hall of Fame induction dinners.
• David W. Steinbeck (1929-2005), publisher of the Canton newspaper between 1968 and 2005. Steinbeck, who once worked for Stars and Stripes, bought the Canton Press-News and the Lewis County Journal in 1968, merging them five years later into the Press-News Journal. The paper was among the first in the state to use personal computers for newswriting and typesetting.
• Samuel E. Lee (1918-1997), former editor and publisher of the Savannah Reporter and Andrew County Democrat from 1947 to 1983. A World War II veteran, he returned home to lead initiatives for new schools and better parks. Each spring from the 1950s through the 1970s, Lee hosted a team of Missouri journalism students who produced an issue of the newspaper.