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James A. Autry: Fortune 500 Executive & Journalist
Jim, the son and grandson of Mississippi Baptist ministers, is an author, poet, and former Fortune 500 executive whose work has had significant influence on leadership thinking. His book Love and Profit, The Art of Caring Leadership won the prestigious Johnson, Smith and Knisely Award as the book that contributed the most to executive thinking in 1992.
Looking Around for God: The Strangely Reverent Observations of an Unconventional Christian is his tenth book. The ninth, The Book of Hard Choices, was published in December 2006. His previous works include Nights Under a Tin Roof...Recollections of a Southern Boyhood, published in 1983, now in its fifth printing; Life After Mississippi, published in 1989; Love and Profit, published in January 1991 and now in paperback (also published in Japanese, Swedish, Chinese, Spanish and Russian); and Life and Work, A Manager's Search for Meaning, published in February 1994. His memoirs of his years in business, Confessions of An Accidental Businessman, published in the fall of 1996, was a finalist in the Global Business Book Awards. Real Power, Business Lessons from the Tao Te Ching, a collaboration with Stephen Mitchell (also published in Korean, German, and Chinese), came out in the spring of 1998; The Servant Leader, was published in the fall of 2001 and is now out in paperback. The Spirit of Retirement was published in the fall of 2002. He is in demand as a speaker nationally and continues as an active author and executive coach. Autry’s video Love and Profit, produced by the Excellence in Training Corporation in 1993, won the 1994 Telly Award for non-broadcast video in the training category. His video Life and Work was released by ETC in January of 1996, and his latest video, Spirit At Work, was released in the summer of 2001. Before taking early retirement in 1991 to pursue his present career, Autry was senior vice president of The Meredith Corporation and president of its magazine group. At the time of his retirement, Autry was regarded as one of the most successful and respected magazine publishing executives in America. Before becoming president of the Magazine Group, he had been senior vice president and general manager of magazine publishing. He joined Meredith in 1960 as copy editor of Better Homes and Gardens and was appointed managing editor in 1962. In early 1967 he left Meredith to become editor and publisher of New Orleans magazine. Autry returned to Meredith in March 1968 as editorial head of Special Interest Publications, which involved him directly in developing new titles for the company. He returned to Better Homes and Gardens as its editor-in-chief in July, 1970, and was appointed to the additional position of editorial director and vice president of Meredith's magazine division in May 1973. The company's magazine and book operations were combined in January of 1976, at which time Autry became vice president and editor-in-chief of all magazines and books. He continued as editor of Better Homes and Gardens until May 1979 when he was named to head the magazine business operations. Autry has been active in many civic and charitable organizations and most notably has worked with disability rights groups for 30 years. He has served as president, chairman of the board, and chairman of the board emeritus of the Epilepsy Foundation of America. He was chairman of the Iowa Department of Education's Advisory Council on Educational Services to Persons with Disabilities, and also served on the Supported Employment Management Council. He was the founding chair of the Claremont Graduate University’s Humanities Center Board of Visitors. He also has served on the professional advisory committee to the department of journalism at the University of Mississippi as well as the corporate advisory board of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Drake University. He was chairman of the professional advisory committee of the College of Home Economics at Iowa State University. Autry was appointed by President Carter in 1979 to serve on the national advisory committee for the White House Conference on Families, and in the mid-80s was president of the Institute for the Advancement of Health. In 1982, he served as president of the Des Moines Symphony Association, and in 1990 co-founded the Des Moines National Poetry Festival. Autry was instrumental in shaping the field of service journalism and worked to establish service journalism chairs at the University of Mississippi and the University of Missouri. At his retirement, Meredith Corporation established a journalism scholarship fund in his name at the University of Mississippi. In 1989, he was named Magazine Executive of the Year by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. Autry was also recipient of the 1990 Women in Communication Headliner Award. The son and grandson of Baptist ministers, Autry grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and north Mississippi. He received a bachelor of arts in journalism degree in 1955 from the University of Mississippi, where in his senior year he was elected to the University's Hall of Fame. He also received the Lambda Sigma Outstanding Journalism Graduate award. He entered the U. S. Air Force in 1955 and served in Europe as a tactical jet fighter pilot during the Cold War. He was released from active duty in 1959 and later attained the rank of major in the Iowa Air National Guard. In 1981, Autry was named a Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Mississippi and was elected to the Alumni Hall of Fame. He holds three honorary degrees: Doctor of Letters from William Jewell College, Liberty, Missouri, 1991; Doctor of Letters from Grandview College, Des Moines, Iowa, 1992; Doctor of Humanities from Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa, 1993. In 1991, he was awarded the Missouri Medal of Honor for Distinguished Service in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. This award is given for a long track record of excellence, rather than for a single outstanding achievement. In 1997-98, he held the Dean Helen LeBaron Hilton Endowed Chair in Leadership at Iowa State University. In 1998 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Service to the Humanities from Iowa Humanities Board and Foundation. Autry has written introductions to several books, and his writings have appeared in many anthologies and magazines. In late 1991, the Kentucky Poetry Review published a special James A. Autry issue. Autry received considerable national attention when he was one of the poets featured in Bill Moyers' 1989 special series The Power of the Word on PBS, and he was featured in Moyers' 1995 book, The Language of Life. His work was also featured on Garrison Keillor’s “Writer’s Corner” on National Public Radio. Autry serves on the national Advisory Board of Poets & Writers, Inc. Autry lives in Des Moines, Iowa, with his wife, recently retired Lieutenant Governor of Iowa Sally Pederson, and their twenty-five-year-old son. He has two grown sons by a previous marriage and is a proud grandfather of two. |
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