MISSOULA – Charles Hood, professor emeritus and former dean of the University of Montana School of Journalism will be honored as a 2014 Distinguished Alumni during Homecoming weekend festivities on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 26-27. The awards are the highest honor presented by UM’s Alumni Association.

Hood, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism at UM, was a faculty member of the UM School of Journalism for 26 years and served 10 years as dean. He was a widely respected expert on U.S. Sen. Mike Mansfield’s life and career, a reporter for United Press International in Helena, and a reporter and editor at the Lewistown Daily News, Great Falls Tribune and Missoulian. He was co-winner of a National Headliner Award in 1975 and has earned recognition from the American Medical Association for his work as a journalist. A leader in promoting international education at UM, he served as exchange professor at Kumamoto University and exchange scholar in journalism at Toyo University in Tokyo. In his retirement, Hood created a journalism exchange between UM and Charles University in the Czech Republic, worked for the Prague Post and copyedited for the International Herald Tribune in Paris. He also volunteered as a writing coach and mentor for UM journalism students and served on the advisory board of the Montanan magazine. He died of Parkinson’s disease in 2013.

The public is invited to attend a panel discussion featuring all five Distinguished Alumni Award recipients at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 26, in the University Center Ballroom on the UM campus. An awards ceremony and reception will follow.