Ruth Hunt

2016 Distinguished Staff

THS Journalism.

“I’m a self-made man,” Journalism teacher and Kansas City, MO. native Ruth Hunt (1889-1964) often declared to her students. After graduating from KU in 1910, she taught at Northwest Missouri State and then for five years at Abilene High school. Miss Hunt came to Topeka High in 1918 as an English teacher, but soon thereafter was drafted as a journalism instructor. Soon she headed both the school paper, The World, and its annual, The Sunflower. Upon retirement in 1950, that year’s Sunflower was dedicated in her honor. Thereafter, for 11 years, Miss Hunt was manager of publications for Topeka’s Harry Turner and Associates, overseeing 15 to 20 publications. Many of her students went on with journalism careers, particularly with Topeka, Kansas City and Omaha papers. At least one of “her boys,” Paul Williams, later won a Pulitzer Prize for the Omaha Sun.