Renowned journalist will speak at USM graduation

Gregory Favre, a former vice president for McClatchy Newspapers whose career began in Mississippi, will be the University of Southern Mississippi's commencement speaker, officials announced Thursday.

Favre, a cousin of former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, is a native of New Orleans but began his career working for the Sea Coast Echo in Bay St. Louis. He was a sports reporter at the Jackson State-Times and assistant sports editor of the Atlanta Journal before becoming press secretary to Georgia U.S. Rep. Charles Weltner. Favre went on to work as managing editor of the Dayton Daily News, Chicago Daily News and Chicago Sun-Times, and editor of the Palm Beach Post, Daytona Beach News-Journal and Corpus Christi Caller-Times. He was also news director of WPLG-TV in Miami. He was the executive editor for the Sacramento Bee.

Farve's newspapers won four Pulitzer Prizes under his leadership. He served as McClatchy's vice president from 1989 to 2001 before retiring and becoming a Distinguished Fellow in Journalism Values at the Poynter Institute. He has also been on advisory boards of several journalism schools and won numerous awards.

The commencement ceremonies will be Dec. 11 at the Reed Green Coliseum in Hattiesburg.

This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 8:12 PM with the headline "Renowned journalist will speak at USM graduation ."