A former Denver Post copy editor has put an exclamation mark on his final statement of loyalty to the University of Colorado.
The estate of William S. Hemingway sent a check for $778,778.39 to the CU-Boulder School of Journalism and Mass Communication this week for scholarships.
“Mr. Hemingway’s gift enables our school to become accessible to a number of highly qualified students who may have thought CU was beyond their reach financially,” Dean Paul S. Voakes said of the surprise gift.
Voakes said the money would “immediately increase the school’s ability to recruit gifted students from around the state and across the country.”
Hemingway died April 9 at Denver Hospice. He was 79. He worked at the Denver Post from 1960 to his retirement in 1991.
During his tenure with the Post, Hemingway assistant editor of the paper’s Empire magazine, zone editor, photo editor, assistant make-up editor and an assistant city editor.
Hemingway was born in Mount Vernon, N.Y. and earned a bachelor’s degree in English from New York University.
He worked in U.S. Army Public Information Office in Germany for two year, before he moved to Colorado in 1955. He first worked as a reporter, photographer and editor for the The Durango Herald, before becoming managing editor of the Cortez Sentinel from 1958 to 1960.
Hemingway was well-known among Post employees for his pastel polyester suits, but on his last day of work before he retired in 1991, he wore a Giorgio Armani tuxedo, according to accounts.
After retirement, he traveled the world, and for 15 years he was an a volunteer exhibit guide at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
