Elsie Dickson Barks, BJ ’45, retired as president and publisher of Barks Publications Inc. on Dec. 31, 2014, after working for 63 years at the trade journal and book publishing company founded by her husband, Horace Barks, in 1951. Elsie Barks was hired by United Press while still a senior in the School of Journalism in 1945 and began her first job as UP’s State House correspondent in Charleston, West Virginia. A year later, she was asked to return to the J-School to serve as an assistant to Professor Eugene Sharp on the city desk of the Columbia Missourian. Barks began graduate work and taught one class, Radio News Writing, before dropping both for marriage in 1947.

Updated: January 7, 2015