Mary Hadar (Inducted 1997)

In her 12 years at the helm of the Washington Post Style section, Hadar completed the process of turning it to one of the best and most admired - if not the best in each of those categories - feature sections in the country.

As Len Downie, Executive Editor of the Post, says: "Mary Hadar is one of the really important leaders of features journalism. She had a great influence on the rest of the paper's sections. She made Style a live, new section with lots of yesterday's and last night's news. She makes things happen and has made us all better journalists."

Hadar, a past President of the AASFE, began her career as a copy editor at the Baltimore Sun. She later served as Foreign Editor for the Jerusalem Post and then became a copy editor for the Post's style section in 1977. Within two years, she became Style's Night Editor and then its Deputy Editor in 1981. In 1983, she was promoted to Assistant Managing Editor/Style.

Hadar is currently Assistant Managing Editor/Features at the Post. In that role she is responsible for getting a features story on the front page of the paper every day. Ellen Edwards, who served as Hadar's Deputy Editor at Style, says: "Writers love her, because she does whatever it takes to make sure a story is right. She never leaves until it is right."