Ron Hull

Born 1930-05-30 Rapid City, SD (USA)

Died 2023-04-20
Lincoln, NE

Hull has led a storied career with Nebraska Educational Television in Lincoln and with the national Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Washington, D.C. He was hired as its fourth employee by KUON TV, NETV's original station, in 1954. In 1955 he became program manager at NETV, and played a central role in making it one of the nation's more successful ETV enterprises.

In Nebraska, in literary terms, Hull is likely best best known for bringing an appreciation of the work of John Neihardt and Mari Sandoz to a much broader audience through interviews and programming on NETV in the 1960s. Hull also helped connect Neihardt and Dick Cavett for their famous 1971 interview. Through the late 1950s and 1960s one of Hull's advisers was Virginia Faulkner, Editor-in-chief of the University of Nebraska Press. Hull would help lead NETV through 2003, and thereafter served as a senior advisor to the organization.

Hull has also served with the U.S Foreign Service in Vietnam, and in his work with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, helped to create the programs "Anyone for Tennyson," "The American Experience," and "Reading Rainbow." The long list of his awards below is inevitably incomplete.

Hull's memoir, Backstage: Stories from My Life in Public Television, 2012 gives insight into his career and his encounters with Neihardt and Sandoz.

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Places Lived

Lincoln, NE (since 1954)
South Dakota
Washington, D.C.
Saigon, VIETNAM
Taipei, TAIWAN

Author Of

Biography
Nonfiction
Play/Screenplay
Other

Keywords

Television scripts; speeches; autobiography

Education

Bachelor of Arts Degree, Dakota Wesleyan University
Master of Science Degree, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Ed.D, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Occupation

Senior Advisor to Nebraska Educational Telecommunications (NET)
Professor of Broadcasting, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Places Worked

Nebraska Educational Television
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
United States Information Agency
Station KUON-TV
Public Broadcasting Service

Honors

Alumnus of the Year Award, Dakota Wesleyan University, 1967
Presidential Commission to serve on President's Committee on the Arts, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 1979
Honorary Doctor of Arts Degree, Dakota Wesleyan University, 1990
Notable Alumnus Award, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, 1997
Distinguished Nebraskan Award, Nebraska Society of Washington DC, 1998
Nebraska Sower Award, Nebraska Humanities Council, 2000
Inducted into the Nebraska Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame, 2004
Addison E. Sheldon Memorial Award for significant achievement of the preservation of Nebraska history, Nebraska State Historical Society, 2009
Pioneer Award, NEBRASKAland Foundation, 2009
Broadcast Pioneer Award, University of Nebraska Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications, 2010
Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree, Chadron State College, 2012
Nebraska Builders Award, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, 2014
Nebraskan of the Year, Downtown Rotary Club of Lincoln, 2014
John H. Ames Reading Series, Featured Reader, 15 February 2015
Mitchell V. Charnley Award from Midwest Broadcast Association, 2015
Nebraska 150 Books honor for Backstage, 2017
Nebraska Literary Heritage Association’s Literary Heritage Award, 2019

Associations

Virginia Faulkner
John Neihardt
Mari Sandoz
Terry Carpenter
Jack McBride
Dick Cavett
Sandy Dennis
Ken Burns
Naomi Hull

Bibliography

Backstage: Stories of My Life in Public Television. 2012.

In February 2015, Ron Hull was one of the featured authors in the Ames Reading Series, which can be viewed here:

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