HONOLULU, HI, October 25, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present John Simonds with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. Simonds celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Simonds began his career as a reporter with the Seymour Daily Tribune, in southern Indiana from 1957 to 1958. Following Army service, he covered state government and feature assignments as a reporter for United Press International in Columbus, OH, from 1958 to 1960. From 1960 to 1965, he worked as a reporter and assistant city editor for the Providence Journal-Bulletin, now the Providence Journal, in Rhode Island.
He moved to Washington D.C. in 1965 to become a general assignment reporter and assistant city editor with the Washington Evening Star, known later as The Washington Star, from 1965 to 1966. In 1966 he joined the Gannett News Service as a regional correspondent in Washington for its growing chain of newspapers which ultimately would include the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. He covered news and politics of Pacific interest for the Star-Bulletin from 1973 until leaving Washington for Hawai'i in late 1975 to become the Star-Bulletin's managing editor until 1980.
Simonds then became executive editor from 1980 to 1987 and furthered his leadership role with the Star-Bulletin as senior editor and editorial page editor from 1987 to 1993, when the Star-Bulletin changed ownership.
From 1993 to 1999, Simonds experienced a different side of the industry as market development editor for the Hawaii Newspaper Agency, the joint-operating entity which served both the evening Star-Bulletin and its separately-owned morning competitor, The Honolulu Advertiser. The agency provided advertising, production, business and circulation for both rival papers in the same building.
(Such arrangements, made legal by the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970, enabled the survival of separately-owned "failing" newspapers in more than 20 U.S. cities, including Honolulu.)
As the drama of newspaper ownership changes continued in Hawai'i, The Advertiser appointed Simonds as its reader representative in 1999, reviving the paper's ombudsman function after two decades. Simonds served in that role— responding to reader questions and complaints, explaining practices, policies, newsroom decisions and technology, as well as working with a rotating community reader panel to promote understanding and transparency—until his retirement in 2002.
Simonds had received a Bachelor of Arts from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME, in 1957 and began newspaper work in Indiana a week later. Graduate school in his major field, English, was not a practical option, but he's continued a lifelong interest in books and writing. He sought a career that offered adventure and found journalism was an opportune and quick way into daily life experience.
Simonds considers highlights of his reporting career to include death-row stories in Ohio, civil rights school and housing issues in New England, and 10 years of historic moments, national and local, in Washington D.C. Uncovering Congressional abuses and wasteful U.S. Pacific Islands practices were among regional stories he pursued against the big story backdrops of Viet Nam, Watergate, crime, social programs and urban tensions. In those years, Simonds lived with his young family in the middle of D.C. within a short walk of the Capitol and U.S. Supreme Court, both part of his beat as a correspondent.
On the editing side, he cites 17 years of Honolulu newsroom leadership in times of Hawai'i political complexity, labor-management tensions, workplace people issues and changing media technology.
Promoting women to newspaper management, advancing other staff careers, hiring more local news writers and photographers, recruiting experienced writers from elsewhere, organizing a hiring program for beginning journalists to work on a sister paper on Guam, sharing in awards for an open public records crusade that led to state reforms, and writing 500 editorials a year during his last three years (1990-92) of running the Star-Bulletin editorial pages, were among his specific accomplishments.
In addition to his career, Simonds served as a lieutenant with the U.S. Army in 1958 and as a reserve officer until 1965. He has authored two books of poetry, "Waves from a Time-Zoned Brain," published in 2009, and "Footnotes to the Sun," published in 2015.
He is a member of the American Society of News Editors and Associated Press Media Editors (now News Leaders Association), Society of Professional Journalists, Association of Opinion Journalists, Organization of News Ombudsmen, Association of Writers and Writing Programs, Hawai'i Literary Arts Council, Friends of the East-West Center and the Mid-Pacific Road Runners Club. Simonds has previously been selected for inclusion in multiple editions of Who's Who in Finance and Business, Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the West.
Simonds is married to "Kitty" (Rose). He enjoys a diverse local network of many in-laws and friends whose welcoming support has been crucial to his career in Hawai'i. Since turning 60 in 1995, he has competed in 22 marathons and dozens of other distance races.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Simonds has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
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