Powell, James O.

James O. Powell, born October 24, 1919, Andalusia, Alabama, graduated from the University of Florida with Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism in 1942. After three and a half years' service in the armed forces in World War II, he worked as a reporter for the Alabama Journal (Montgomery), the Tampa Tribune, and the Miami Herald. In 1955-1956 he served in Washington, D.C., as administrative assistant to Senator George A. Smathers of Florida. He returned to the Tampa Tribune in 1956 as editorial writer, and later became an associate editor. Powell joined the Arkansas Gazette in 1959 as editor of the editorial page. He was named editorial director in 1973, in which capacity he remained until 1985 when he became a senior editor. Powell retired from the Arkansas Gazette in 1987, taught journalism at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1988, and returned to the Arkansas Gazette in 1991 as a contributing weekly columnist until the Gazette's demise in October 1991. In 1992 he began writing a weekly column for the Jonesboro Sun, the Benton Courier, and the Warren, Arkansas, Eagle Democrat.

Powell is a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Committee on Foreign Relations, and Sigma Delta Chi, professional journalistic society. He has won awards for editorial writing from the National Conference of Christians, and Jews, the National Education Association, the Arkansas Council on Human Relations, and the American Jewish Committee. He was honored as a Poynter Fellow at Yale University.