Jerry Heaster, dean of The Kansas City Star’s business desk, is retiring — bringing an end to a long and distinguished career in business journalism. He wrote more than 5,000 columns in the past 27 years, according to a story in this morning’s paper.
Star reporter Chris Lester wrote, “Heaster, 67, cited health issues as the reason he is leaving the newspaper. Over the past two years, his popular column has appeared only intermittently — first because of a broken hip suffered in February 2004 and later because of a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma diagnosed later that year.”
The Society of American Business Editors and Writers plans to bestow the organization’s President’s Award on Heaster at its annual meeting this spring in Minneapolis. Heaster is just the fourth recipient of the award, which the organization, established in 1964, grants occasionally to recognize significant contributions to the organization and business journalism.
The paper will search for a replacement.
