Tom Caudill

Thomas E. Caudill, Jr., came to WKU as an undergraduate student. While on the Hill, Tom was active in Student Publications on the College Heights Herald and Talisman staff. He served as editor in chief of the Herald in 1975. He graduated from WKU in 1979, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and government.

Following graduation, Tom began a prolific career in journalism. He was a reporter and editor in Bowling Green and Henderson, Kentucky, and Charlotte, North Carolina. He then began a long stint with the Lexington Herald-Leader in Lexington, Kentucky. There he managed local and state news coverage for the newspaper and Kentucky.com. He served as assigning editor in various roles, including state editor, metro editor, assistant managing editor, and deputy editor from 1981-2014, when he became managing editor and remained in that position until he retired in 2017. He was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 2019.

Tom was a member of the board of Kentucky Press Association from 1997-2007, and was president from 1998-1999. He continues to serve the Kentucky Press Association as chairman on the Legal Fund Committee. He has been a member of the Producers’ Circle of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival since 2005. He serves on the board of directors for the Kentucky Kernel, the University of Kentucky’s independent student newspaper. He was a Knight Ridder Fellow at Duke University.

He is a devoted WKU alumnus as well. He has won the Volunteer of the Year Summit Award from the WKU Alumni Association on two separate occasions. He also received the Distinguished Service Medal in 2008, a university-wide award. He has been chairman of the advisory board of University Publications since 2012. He is married to Larry E. Sparks, retired principal of Paint Lick Elementary School in Garrard County, Kentucky.

To further support the university, Tom established the Tom Caudill Endowed Fund for Journalism Experience in 2013. The fund supports WKU students who are majoring in journalism and are interning at a journalism company. Through this fund, Tom’s legacy on the Hill lives on.