Post, Rose Zimmerman 1926-

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POST, Rose Zimmerman 1926-

PERSONAL:

Born October 2, 1926, in Morgantown, NC; daughter of Samuel Sinai (a retail merchant) and Anna (a retail merchant; maiden name, Pliskin) Zimmerman; married Edward Martin Post (a retail merchant), July 8, 1947; children: David Bruce, Phyllis Beryl (Leibowitz), Samuel Michael, Jonathan Alan, Anna Susan (Rust). Education: University of North Carolina, Greensboro, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1948; postgraduate studies at University of North Carolina, 1972-74. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, theater-going, travel, knitting, skiing.

ADDRESSES:

Home—125 East Corriher Ave., Salisbury, NC 28144-2427. Office—Salisbury Post, 131 West Innes St., Salisbury, NC 28144-4338.

CAREER:

Journalist and columnist. Salisbury Post, Salisbury, NC, reporter, 1951-83, columnist, 1983. Catawba College, adjunct professor of journalism, 1988-89.

MEMBER:

National Association of Newspaper Columnists, North Carolina Press Association, North Carolina Working Press (formerly North Carolina Press Women; secretary, 1983, second vice president, 1984, first vice president, 1985, president, 1986), North Carolina Press Club, Council of Jewish Women (former president), Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Citizen of Year, Salisbury Civitan Club, 1976; honorary Litt.D., Catawba College, 1981; Excellence in Writing Award, North Carolina Working Press 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1998, 1999; Ernie Pyle Award, Scripps Howard News, 1989; North Carolina Press Association awards, 1990-2001; O. Henry Award, North Carolina AP News Council, 1991, 1992, 1995; first place for general column, National Association of Newspaper Columnists, 1994; Excellence in Community Service Award, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1996; named to North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame, 1996; Humanitarian of the Year Award, Salisbury Community Care Clinic, 2002; three North Carolina Press Women awards; Pete Ivey Award; School Bell Award, for educational coverage; named Woman of Achievement, Salisbury Business and Professional Women.

WRITINGS:

Contributor to periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Journalist Rose Zimmerman Post has spent her long career as a reporter and columnist at the Salisbury Post in Salisbury, North Carolina. Since her first day at the paper on June 16, 1951, Post has devoted more than fifty years to chronicling the people, places, events, and institutions of her home town and home state.

Hired on the recommendation of a colleague who had left the paper, Post started in the personals, which had a different connotation in the early 1950s than has come to be known. Post's job, commented Elizabeth G. Cook on the Salisbury Post Web site, was to comb through the local phone book and call people at random, looking for individual stories, information on trips, parties, and similar events, and for personal news. Post created seventy-five personal stories that first day, an accomplishment Cook called "phenomenal" in a field notorious for difficulties in drawing personal information out of interview subjects.

Post is a winner of multiple awards and recognitions, including the Ernie Pyle Award, three O. Henry awards, and six Working Press Excellence in Writing awards. The North Carolina Writers' Network stages an annual Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition in her honor, and Post has also been honored by the creation of the Rose Zimmerman Post Endowment at Rowan Public Library in Rowan County, North Carolina, used to fund acquisitions of new books and materials. "It's the best way we can think of to honor a person to whom the written word means so much," Cook commented.

In her lengthy career, Post covered nuts-and-bolts hard news stories, breaking events, and the government and organization meetings that lie at the core of newspaper journalism. But Post "connects with readers most powerfully with columns and features," Cook remarked. "You can hear people's voices in Rose's stories, feel their heartaches and share in their joys."