R. Lee Hicks Full
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Lee was the lead reporter while supervising his paper’s coverage of resort development, endangered species and water allocation issues that have brought national attention to the Methow Valley--a remote basin in the upper Columbia River system. This experience nurtured his in-depth knowledge and insight into the tensions of traditional values of the "Old West" and the "New West." In his early career, Lee was a reporter and editor with weekly, daily and national wire service media in Colorado and Connecticut. He later was a marketing and public relations advisor for a number of national real estate companies, and was involved with major commercial and residential projects in Denver and Seattle-- in addition to advising other business, government and non-profit clients. Lee has been a licensed Washington real estate agent since 1990, and recently qualified for Oregon licensing by successfully challenging that state's exam. Lee’s personal pursuits include nordic and downhill skiing, golf, flyfishing and river rafting, which extends an interest of college summers spent as a commercial rafting guide on the Snake River in Wyoming’s Jackson Hole. His first summers in Wyoming also included experience in food service and housekeeping for Jackson Lake Lodge, where he developed an appreciation for customer care in a tourism setting. A North Carolina native, Lee graduated from UNC at Chapel Hill in 1966 and served two years in the Army before beginning his professional career. He is the father of a daughter, Lily, a middle school student. As publisher of the Methow Valley News, Lee resided in Seattle and the Methow Valley. Books
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Lee Hicks
most recently was owner
and publisher of the Methow Valley News,
a 100-year-old newspaper in a resort and recreation area
of Washington near the British Columbia border. Lee began
his association with the newspaper as a shareholder and
director in the mid 1980s. During his tenure as publisher
from 1994 through 2001 the paper won numerous awards,
among them selection as top weekly in its circulation
group by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association.