By CHARLYNE BERENS
J Alumni News editor
Jerry Huse may have gone to high school and college in Minnesota, but when he returned to Nebraska in 1950, his loyalties came with him.
“This is my state,” Huse said. “I switched allegiance when I came home.”
One result of that allegiance to Nebraska has been a gift from Jerry and Karla Huse to fund a faculty conference room in Andersen Hall. It is one of several gifts the Huses have given to the journalism college to fund scholarships and faculty support in addition to capital construction.
Jerry Huse spent his high school years at Shattuck School in Minnesota, the oldest prep school west of the Mississippi. After graduation, it seemed natural, he said, to enroll in the University of Minnesota where his admission into a special program called University College allowed him to design a custom course of study that resulted in majors in journalism and business.
But then it was back to deep roots in the newspaper business and in northeast Nebraska. Huse’s great-grandfather, William Huse, founded The Northern Nebraska Journal in Ponca in 1871, the state’s first newspaper in northern Nebraska. He went on to found the Wayne Herald and several other papers in the area.
Then in 1888, William Huse and his son, William N. Huse, bought the one-year-old Norfolk News. William N. ran that publication until he died in 1913, when Jerry Huse’s father, Gene, left the University of Nebraska to return home and become the paper’s third publisher.
Jerry Huse had planned to spend five years at the University of Minnesota, but he graduated in four years, and when his father’s health began to fail, Jerry returned to Norfolk to run the newspaper. He became publisher in 1956 at age 29.
“When I marched in here, I was in charge. It was fish or cut bait,” Huse said. “The people here were just wonderful. They were so tolerant of me.”
The paper had gone from 400 subscribers when William Huse bought it to 6,000 by the time Jerry Huse took over. It reached a peak circulation of 23,000 in the late 1990s.
Huse attributes the paper’s success to the employees — their quality and their staying power. His father started a profit-sharing program in 1940, which Jerry Huse converted to a 401(k) program “when it became obvious that was better. That’s a significant factor” in holding onto good employees, he said. “People take great pride in the place.”
Huse is pleased with the longevity among the staff. “They’re just like family to me,” he said.
Kent Warneke returns the sentiment, saying he is fortunate to work with someone like Huse.
“Jerry is a rare breed when it comes to publishers,” said Warneke, who has been editor of the Norfolk Daily News since 1992. “He likes to say people don’t work for him, they work with him.” Warneke said Huse supports his staff and the decisions staff members make.
Warneke said Huse was exceptionally interested in typography, something Huse said dated back to his time at the University of Minnesota where one of his professors fostered his interest. One of the first things he did when he returned to Norfolk in 1950 was to redesign the paper. He has done it several more times since then.
Warneke said, “He has an amazing eye for typography. He can look at a headline that’s supposed to be 42 point, and he’ll say, ‘That looks more like 41 point.’ And he’s right.”
Warneke also appreciates Huse’s commitment to his employees and his community. “He has a deep love for the community, a deep sense of responsibility and obligation to serving that community.”
While Huse continues to support Norfolk with his leadership and his donations, he also feels a commitment to a larger community, one that includes the NU journalism college.
“It’s self-interest, in a way,” he said of his gifts to the college. “We want a strong university and a strong communications college there. If this country’s going to survive, we’d better keep the print media alive. … I think democracy needs newspapers very badly, and a free press is vital.”
Huse earned the money he’s now giving away through investments, not at the newspaper or the two Norfolk radio stations his family also owns. “We’re not like chains. We’re not bottom-line oriented,” he said. “We’re preserving the quality of the product and the people. That’s our philosophy.”
That philosophy has impressed Will Norton, journalism dean. The way the Huse family runs the newspaper “is a model of how newspapers should be run,” Norton said. “The integrity in that newspaper is something we should all emulate.”
Norton also appreciates the Huses’ support of the J school. “Jerry and Karla Huse are probably as generous and gracious a newspaper couple as I have ever met,” he said. “Their concern for Nebraska students is heartwarming.
Jerry and Karla Huses’ children, Beth and Bill, both attended NU. Beth’s husband, Brad Olsen, is now general manager of the Norfolk paper. Bill and his family live near Atlanta, Ga., were he works for Operation Mobilization, a nondenominational Christian worldwide missionary group.
Jerry himself still works full-time at the newspaper. Warneke said he couldn’t imagine Huse would quit as long as his health is good. “He has such a love for journalism and the Daily News and the community.”
Huse said people ask him why he works so hard, why he doesn’t retire. “My hobby is running the paper,” he said. “I’m here because I love it, not because it’s work.”