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Hall of Fame 1998Mal HansenVideo |
Born in Dixon, Iowa, August 8, 1916, Mal Hansen graduated from his two-room Dixon elementary school, Davenport, Iowa High School, and the University of Iowa. He received his B.A. degree in 1938 and his M.A. in 1940.
While attending the University of Iowa, Mal became Assistan Farm Editor at WHO Radio in Des Moines. In 1943, prior to a three-year stint in the U.S. Navy as a communications training officer, he was farm editor at KSO/KRNT, Des Moines.
Following his service in the Navy, Mal was named farm service director at WOW Radio and TV in Omaha, a position he held for thirteen years until 1959. He then joined Travel and Transport, Inc. in Omaha, where he retired as president in 1987. His career has taken him to more than eighty countries throughout the world.
At WOW radio, Mal developed many programs and received the George Foster Peabody Award for Community Service. He pioneered farm service programs on television starting in 1949. Mal was elected to the National Association of Farm Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1993.
Active over the years in community service, Mal currently is a member of the Omaha Chapter of the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) and the Executive Service Corps of Nebraska.
he and his wife of 60 years, Mildred (known to many as Millie) have four children and nine grandchildren and reside in Omaha.