Pauline Crooke Obituary

Pauline Hilty Crooke
1928 - 2014
Pauline Hilty Crooke, 85, died March 27, 2014
A pioneer feminist, she was the first woman to hold several jobs, including being the first to serve as director of public information for a co-educational college or university, the first to serve full-time as a television reporter in the northwest and the first to be a TV news director for a CBS TV affiliate station nationally.
Born August 3, 1928 in Nampa, Idaho, she was graduated from Nampa High School where she was active in music, debate, drama and journalism. She served as editor of the Growl, the NHS newspaper. She attended Northwest Nazarene College, the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism and graduated from the College of Idaho.
Ms. Crooke worked from 1946-1952 as a reporter and in advertising at the Idaho Free Press, Nampa, Idaho. From 1953 to 1970 she was a staff member at the College of Idaho as director of Public Relations and Information - 15 of those years she also served as secretary of the C of I Alumni Association.
As a staff member for seven years of KBOI (later KBCI) Radio and Television station in Boise, Idaho, she served as a producer, reporter and news director. From 1977-78 she served as a public information consultant to the Governor's Blue Ribbon committee on health care, producing a statewide publicity campaign on the causes of increasing health costs.
Moving to New York City in 1978 she became the first executive director of the Corporate Theatre Fund, responsible for raising funds for the seven leading non-profit professional regional theaters throughout the US. From 1980-84 she was development director of the Animal Medical Center, "the Mayo clinic for animals." The next four years she was director of development for the pediatrics department of the New York Hospital - Cornell University Medical Center.
Ill health forced her to take early retirement in 1987. She moved to Anacortes, WA the following year. Ms. Crooke headed the successful statewide lobbying campaign which resulted in the establishment of the Idaho Human Rights Commission. She served as district newsletter editor for the American College Public Relations association and helped found the Boise Chapter of the National Association of Colored People.
Her honors included listing in Who's Who Among American Women, Dictionary of International Biography of Women and Distinguished Personalities of the West and Midwest. She was recipient of the first award given for the Outstanding Media Communicator for the City of Boise in 1976, the Distinguished Service award given by The College of Idaho Women's Symposium, Distinguished Alumni Service award from the C of I Alumni Association and Outstanding College Administrator award given by the C o I student body in 1970.
She was a member of the American Alumni Council, Idaho Press Club, Idaho Press Women's Association, statewide coordinator for the committee for the International Women's Year conference, consultant for the Boise YWCA Women's Center, board member for the Boise Salvation Army Home for Unwed Mothers, Young Republican county chairman and state vice president.
She was married to Richard W. Crooke from 1951 - 60. Survivors include her daughter, Cheryl (Steve), sister Virginia Gabica, and brother James Hilty (Pat) of Boise.

Published by Idaho Statesman on Apr. 2, 2014.
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Memories and Condolences
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Dear Cheri,
I can't find an address for you, so will use this format. I was out of the country when Pauli died, but wanted to remark upon this enchanting, exhausting woman. When I first was at the College of Idaho, I was terrified of her. She worked in the alumni office where Larry Leasure (then my husband) was the director. she knew everyone and everything about everyone all over the county and state. We became friends through books and I spent many an hour at either her kitchen table or mine talking...yes about everyone. When she moved to Boise, she used to come pick up my little girls on a Saturday morning for a couple of hours to give me a little break. They loved her. Once she moved to New York, we were mostly Christmas card writers, talking books, of course. I last visited her in the summer and, she gave me a book, naturally. i will miss this lively, opinonated powerhouse of a woman. A great storyteller, a great interviewer, a passionate person. We are all orphans now. With affection and sympathy, Patrica Cobb Leasure Pierose

Patty Pierose

May 12, 2014

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