KEES, Beverly (Ann) 1941-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born July 4, 1941, in Minneapolis, MN; died after being hit by a semi-trailer truck while walking her neighbor's dog December 10, 2004, in San Francisco, CA. Journalist, educator, and author. Kees was a respected reporter and newspaper editor who later became a popular professor at San Francisco State University. She graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1963, after which she joined the staff at the Minneapolis Star. She worked there as a reporter and, from 1969 until 1973, was editor of the "Taste" section. She then moved on to the Minneapolis Tribune, where she was an assistant managing editor. Seven years later, Kees was made executive editor of the Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota, the first woman to serve in that capacity at a newspaper owned by the Knight-Ridder company. Other leadership positions followed, including editorship of the Post-Tribune in Gary, Indiana, from 1984 until 1988, and the post of executive editor at the Fresno Bee from 1988 until 1993. When she left the Fresno Bee, Kees joined the Freedom Forum Pacific Coast Center, a foundation that promoted journalism education. Until it closed in 2000, Kees was the center's program director and editor for seven years and established its Newseum, a Washington, D.C.-based museum that focused on the history of news media. Kees was then hired to teach at San Francisco State University, where she was a journalism professor. The author of Nothing Sacred: Journalism Politics and Public Trust in a Tell-All Age (1994), written with Bill R. Phillips, Kees also wrote several cookbooks, including Cook with Honey (1973) and Basic Breads around the World (1977).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Fresno Bee, December 11, 2004, p. B6.

San Francisco Chronicle, December 11, 2004, p. B10.

Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), December 12, 2004, p. B6.

Washington Post, December 18, 2004, p. B6.