J. Malcolm "Jay" Pace, III
Former Editor and Owner, Herald-Progress

Jay Pace began his journalism career as a preteen, when he wrote The Sleepy Hollow Times for his neighbors. At the time, he used carbon paper to make copies.  From these beginnings sprang a career that would span more than 35 years and earn Pace numerous awards.

While attending Randolph-Macon College from 1963-67, Pace worked on the school newspaper and spent two summers writing for the Richmond Times Dispatch.  In 1968, Pace became director of public relations for Randolph-Macon College. He founded and was editor of Sports Media Magazine in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1969 he began to broadcast Randolph Macon football and basketball games on local radio; this continued until 1981. In 2004 Pace was elected to the Randolph Macon College's Athletic Hall of Fame because his work as a student basketball manager, as a broadcaster, and as a sports information director.

Pace left Randolph-Macon in 1972 to become editor of publications for Life Insurance Company of Virginia. In 1973, he joined the Herald-Progress as an associate editor. In 1979, he became editor of the paper, and in 1981, Pace and his wife bought the Herald-Progress– retaining their ownershipuntil his death in 2004.

During his tenure at the Herald-Progress, the newspaper was honored numerous times for its writing, photography and graphic design.  Pace won more than 60 Virginia Press Association awards for editorial, news, feature and sports writing and graphic design.  The newspaper won the VPA's Sweepstakes Award in 1995 and 1996 as the best in its circulation category.

Pace was an active member of the Society of Professional Journalists, Richmond Chapter, serving as its president in 1981-82.  He received the society's highest honor, the George Mason Award, in 2004.  He also was an important part of the Virginia Press Association.  He was on the board from 1982 to 1994 and was president for the 1992-93 term.  Pace posthumously received VPA's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.