Jack Rohe Howard (August 31, 1910 – March 22, 1998) was an American broadcasting executive. He was president of the

E. W. Scripps Company The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...

from 1953 to 1976.Rohde, David (March 23, 1998)
Jack R. Howard, 87, Broadcasting Executive
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. Accessed February 6, 2013. Born in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, the son of

Roy W. Howard Roy W. Howard (1883–1964) was an American newspaperman with a long association with E. W. Scripps Company. He was president of E. W. Scripps Company and the United Press, and chairman of Scripps Howard Newspapers. He began his newspaper care ...

, a founder of

United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20t ...

, he attended Phillips Exeter Academy and in 1932 graduated from

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

. After several years in newspaper journalism, including reporting from Japan and

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

, Howard moved into broadcasting and chaired Scripps Howard's broadcasting division from 1937 until his retirement in 1976. He talked his father, then head of Scripps-Howard newspapers, out of closing Denver's ''

Rocky Mountain News The ''Rocky Mountain News'' (nicknamed the ''Rocky'') was a daily newspaper published in Denver, Colorado, United States, from April 23, 1859, until February 27, 2009. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company from 1926 until its closing. As ...

'' in 1940 and, while serving with the US Navy in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he participated in the landings at

Leyte Leyte ( ) is an island in the Visayas group of islands in the Philippines. It is eighth-largest and sixth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 2,626,970 as of 2020 census. Since the accessibility of land has be ...

and Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines. According to ''The New York Times'', "His career was marked by his determination to set his own course and to bring the company his father helped establish into the fledgling field of broadcasting." The Scripps-Howard broadcasting division grew from two radio stations to six television stations and three radio stations under his leadership. The Scripps-owned NBC station KTEW-TV in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

changed its call letters in honor of Howard on July 14, 1980, to KJRH-TV. Howard helped found the

Scripps Howard Foundation The Scripps Howard Fund is a public charity that supports philanthropic causes important to the E. W. Scripps Company, an American media conglomerate which owns television stations, cable television networks, and other media outlets. The goal of ...

in 1962 and served as its president for its first five years.Foundation History
Scripps Howard Foundation website. Accessed February 6, 2013. He was president of the Inter American Press Association (SIP/IAPA) in 1965–1966."Jack R. Howard" (with photo)
''Presidentes de la SIP.'' SIP/IAPA website. Accessed February 6, 2013. After his death on March 22, 1998, he left the Scripps Howard Foundation a bequest of more than $7 million.

References

1910 births 1998 deaths E. W. Scripps Company people Phillips Exeter Academy alumni Yale University alumni United States Navy sailors 20th-century American journalists American male journalists 20th-century American philanthropists {{US-journalist-1910s-stub