A journalist, newspaper publisher, college instructor and administrator,
author, avid reader and book reviewer, Francis Dean Moul was born on
April 11, 1940 to Willis Francis (Snook) and Dorothy Dean Moul at York,
NE. He died March 4, 2023 at the age of 82 at Lincoln, Ne. He graduated
from Vermillion, SD High School in 1958, and received a bachelor’s
degree in journalism and a master’s degree in political science from the
University of South Dakota at Vermillion in 1964 and 1966. He received
his doctorate in environmental history from the University of Nebraska
in 1998.
He received a Fulbright Scholarship to India at the
University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, in 1966. His journalism endeavors
included the Sioux City Journal, Boone News Republican and editorial
writer at the Des Moines Register and Tribune. He was an instructor in
political science at Wayne State College and then was a founder, CEO and
Publisher of the Syracuse, NE Journal-Democrat and Maverick Media, Inc.
a printing and publishing firm in Syracuse, NE.
He also was a
proprietor of an antiquarian bookstore and art gallery in Lincoln and
development officer for the Nebraska Community Foundation. He was vice
president for Institutional Relations at Chadron State College and
Executive Director of the Chadron State Foundation, retiring in 2001.
His book on the National Grasslands was published by the University of
Nebraska Press in 2006. He wrote numerous articles for Nebraska
publications, primarily on environmental issues, and wrote hundreds of
book reviews for the Lincoln Journal Star, Des Moines Register and Omaha
World-Herald and other newspapers and magazines.
He received
numerous newspaper writing and publishing awards, won the James C.
Sellers Award for best article in Nebraska History magazine and the 2007
Nebraska Center for the Book award for best nonfiction book, for the
National Grasslands.
He was a charter founder, director,
president and volunteer executive director for the Nebraska Wildlife
Federation and president of numerous organizations in Syracuse and
Southeast Nebraska, president of Nebraskans for Peace, and first
associate chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party and member of the
Democratic National Committee.
He married Mary McVay, who died
at the age of 25 in 1966. Their daughter, Jennifer, was adopted by his
second wife, Maxine Burnett (married on April 20, 1972), and they had a
son, Jeff. Jennifer died in an automobile accident in 1985 at the age of
19.
He is survived by his wife, Maxine, of Lincoln; son Jeff
(Diane Becket) and children, Adia, Annalise and Logan of Rapid City, SD;
son Bogart (Donna) Nomad and sons Nik and Zak of Elkhorn, NE; brother,
John Moul of Boone, IA; sister, Judi Leonard of San Jose, CA;
sisters-in-law, Karlene Moomey of Elwell, MI, Kris Johnson of Lyons, NE,
and Mary Thomas of San Antonio, TX; and numerous nieces and nephews. He
was preceded in death by his wife, Mary; daughter, Jennifer; parents
Willis Francis and Dorothy Dean Moul; sisters Miriam Moul and Maxine
Carey; mother-in-law Gen McVay; and father and mother-in-law Einer and
Eva Burnett.
A celebration of life will be held in Lincoln at a
later date, with private family burial in the Fairmont, NE cemetery,
next to his pioneer ancestors who came to Filmore County in 1872. In
lieu of flowers, please send memorials to the Jenny Fund at the Nebraska
Community Foundation. Online condolences may be left at www.farmerandsonfuneralhome.com.