INF Announces New Scholarship

Funded by friends and family of longtime Iowa newspaper reporter and former Des Moines Register Northeast Iowa Bureau chief, Jack Hovelson, an annual $500 scholarship will be awarded to a sophomore, junior or senior at University of Northern Iowa or Iowa State University. Applicants must demonstrate dedication to print or digital journalism, and exhibit curiosity, creativity, and integrity in reporting news–notable characteristics of Hovelson’s career.

Jack Hovelson devoted his career to the newspapers of Iowa. After a short stint with the Fort Dodge Messenger, Jack worked for the Waterloo Courier for seven years and then served as head of the Northeast Iowa Bureau for the Des Moines Register in Waterloo from 1968 to 1996,

where his byline garnered a statewide reputation and following. After retiring, he had the opportunity to pass along some of his journalism knowledge to a younger generation when he served as advisor for the Northern Iowan student newspaper for another nine years. His professional forays outside of Iowa included writing for the U.S. Army’s Cavalier and Stars & Stripes newspapers while serving in Japan in the mid 1950s and a four-month stint in the late 90s at USA Today in Arlington, VA as part of a Gannett exchange program.

Hovelson was the subject of a University of Iowa Masters Degree project, A Reporter’s Reporter, by Sara Konrad and part of Stephen Bloom’s Iowa Journalists Oral History project, on file at the Iowa Digital Library.