Area Journalists Among MPA Hall of Fame Members

Four newspaper people, including two from northwest Missouri, will be inducted in September into the Missouri Press Association Newspaper Hall of Fame.
The induction reception and banquet are scheduled at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11, during the 149th annual Convention of the Missouri Press Association at the Holiday Inn Select Executive Center in Columbia. This will be the 25th group to be inducted into the Newspaper Hall of Fame, which was established by MPA in 1991.
This year’s inductees are the late George A. Killenberg, former executive editor of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat; the late William H. “Bill” Plummer, reporter, editor and photographer for more than 50 years with the Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune; the late Col. Robert Morgan White, who published the Mexico Ledger beginning in 1876; and Darryl Wilkinson, publisher of the Gallatin North Missourian.
Hall of Fame inductees or their families receive Pinnacle Awards in honor of the inductees’ service to the Missouri newspaper industry and their communities. Inductees’ plaques will join the permanent display of inductees in the MPA office in Columbia and in the student lounge in Lee Hills Hall at the Missouri School of Journalism.
George A.
Killenberg
George A. Killenberg served as a reporter, city editor, managing editor and finally executive editor of the old St. Louis Globe-Democrat during his 43-year career with the newspaper. A native of St. Louis, he attended St. Louis University, working as a sports information director. The Globe-Democrat hired him in 1941 as a reporter. After serving in the Army medical corps during World War II, Killenberg returned to the Globe-Democrat and to SLU where he earned a master’s degree in American history. As a reporter, he covered the coal mine disaster in Centralia, IL, in 1947 that killed 111 miners.
In 1956, Killenberg was promoted to city editor, then to managing editor 10 years later, and to executive editor in 1979. He retired when the Newhouse family sold the newspaper in 1984. He served as president of the St. Louis Press Club and the Mid-America Press Institute.
Killenberg was known as a strong advocate of local news. He championed diversity in the newsroom, assigning female reporters to hard-news beats, hiring the city’s first female sportswriter, recruiting minorities from area journalism schools, and he promoted a woman, Sue Ann Wood, to Globe-Democrat editorial posts never before held by a woman: city editor and later managing editor. Under his leadership, the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize and reporting awards from Sigma Delta Chi, the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the Alfred Sloan Foundation.
He believed journalism stood FOR the people. As he directed news coverage, he used the considerable influence of the Globe-Democrat to sound alarms, expose injustices and hold public officials and public figures accountable for their actions. To Killenberg, journalists were the ultimate public servants. Born in 1917, Killenberg died in 2008 at the age of 91.
William H. “Bill” 
Plummer
William H. “Bill” Plummer’s newspaper career spanned more than 50 years. He joined the Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune staff in February 1941, just 13 years after the Constitution and the Tribune newspapers merged. Except for about four years, Plummer worked for the Chillicothe daily until his retirement in 1987. Even after his retirement he continued to contribute stories, make photographs and write his popular column, “Reflections.” He was known for his ability to make a story out of a fact or detail most people would consider insignificant. He was a skilled photographer and is credited for setting up the newspaper’s first darkroom in the bathroom of his home. He was a part-owner of the newspaper and served as a mentor for budding journalists who came to serve as reporters and photographers with the newspaper.
Plummer attended Park College in Parkville and the University of Missouri School of Journalism, receiving his degree from MU in 1936. He got his start in 1936 as a reporter with the Harrison County Times in Bethany. In 1940 he was hired as city editor and reporter in Chillicothe. Two years later, he joined the staff of the Kansas City Times. Then, he joined the U.S. Navy in 1944. In 1946, he returned to the Constitution-Tribune, working at the newspaper for the next 41 years, serving as editor, photographer, part-owner, and at his retirement in 1987, as assistant to the publisher.
For his work in journalism, Plummer was honored by the Missouri House of Representatives, the City of Chillicothe, the Chillicothe School District and other local organizations. He served one term on the Chillicothe City Council and was a member of several city and county organizations. In 1988, the Constitution-Tribune established an annual $1,000 scholarship in his name for a Chillicothe High School graduate. He received the Merrill Chilcote Award during the 100th anniversary banquet of the Northwest Missouri Press Association. He served as president of NWMPA in 1963. Born in 1915, Plummer died in 2001 at age 86.
Col. Robert Morgan
White
Col. Robert Morgan White was born in 1855 and became associated with the Mexico Weekly Ledger when his mother paid $2,000 to buy the weekly from editor J. Linn Ladd in September 1876. Col. White made the Ledger one of the state’s leading newspapers, and he became one of Missouri’s and the nation’s most respected journalism leaders. Col. White earned his degree from Westminster College and was offered a contract to play baseball with the St. Louis Browns. He edited a college monthly, where he “acquired a taste for journalism.” He learned the newspaper business from the bottom up, starting as a printer’s devil, moving to printer, foreman, society reporter, business manager, and the editorship.
Col. White’s son, L. Mitchell White, described his father in these words: “He was six feet, three inches tall, and weighed close to 200 pounds when he took charge of the Ledger. He was straight as an arrow and walked with long strides. People always referred to his walking across the square rapidly, his coattails flapping in the air. He was energetic, extremely active, quick, both in actions and reaching a decision. Always just and fair, he deplored dishonesty and misbehavior. He had little time or use for political demagogues or those in public life who used their positions for selfish purposes or to rob from the public.”
Col. White served as president of the Missouri Press Association in 1885. His son, L. Mitchell White (1921), and his grandson, Robert M. White II (1984), served as MPA presidents and also are members of the MPA Hall of Fame. Col. White was active as a member of the Missouri Press Association all his life and was at one time recording secretary of the National Editorial Association (now the National Newspaper Association) and vice president of the Western Federation of Writers. He was a leader in church, civic and charitable organizations in the Mexico community. A newspaper editor in Warrensburg in 1885 noted: “Bob White’s paper, the Ledger, has done more for the town of Mexico than have all of its citizens combined. The Ledger is to Mexico what the heart is to man.” Col. White died in 1934 at the age of 79.
Darryl Wilkinson
Darryl Wilkinson has been president of Gallatin Publishing Company since 1982. A 1972 graduate of Odessa High School, he is editor and publisher of the Gallatin North Missourian, the oldest business in continuous operation in Daviess County, established in 1864. Wilkinson and his wife, Elizabeth, were a journalism team on projects even before they married and worked together on the campus newspaper at Northwest Missouri State University. They worked at newspapers in Ida Grove, IS and Grant City before moving to Gallatin in 1978. During the years the Wilkinsons have owned and operated Gallatin Publishing Company, gross sales and business operations have multiplied. Internet website construction and hosting were added to printing operations during the 1990s. The company currently hosts and maintains more than 100 commercial internet websites and operates the dominant real estate and auctions website serving North Missouri and Southern Iowa under the domains of NorthwestMissouri.com, ShoMeMore.com and GPCink.com.
Business expansion occurred in 2008 when a six-unit News King press was purchased from the University of Missouri and relocated to Gallatin. The publishing company moved away from the town square into a 12,000 sq.ft. manufacturing facility to offer full-color newsprint printing to its customers. Gallatin Publishing Company owns and operates four newsprint periodicals of its own while providing printing services to a dozen neighboring weekly and daily newspapers and advertising shoppers at locations throughout northwest Missouri. The company employs 28 full and part-time employees at its printing plant and offices in Gallatin and at its sales office in Chillicothe. A 1976 graduate of Northwest Missouri State University, Wilkinson served as president of the Northwest Missouri Press Association in 1985 and has served on the Missouri Press Association Board of Directors.
He was president of the Gallatin Industrial Development Corporation, leading to the construction of Gallatin Area Business Park, helping to attract a major employer, Continental Grain Company, in pork production to North Missouri. He was named Missouri Volunteer of the Year in 1994 by the Southern Industrial Development Council for helping initiate and create jobs through Gallatin Industrial Development Corporation. The Wilkinsons are active in many community and church affairs. They have four children and seven grandchildren.