Longtime Fresno Bee reporter dies. George Hostetter remembered as ‘consummate journalist’

When George Hostetter retired from The Fresno Bee in 2015, it came with official recognition from the city.

Council members and then-Mayor Ashley Swearengin proclaimed it “George Hostetter Day” and spent several minutes doing something unusual for a journalist – thanking him for his work in holding city leaders accountable.

At the time, Hostetter said he was privileged for the chance to report in and about Fresno, which he saw as the perfect microcosm of American society, with all its ills, problems, strengths and potential.

Hostetter died Thursday of prostate cancer. He was 70 years old.

In a statement Friday, Fresno Mayor Lee Brand remembered Hostetter as “the consummate journalist – tough, dogged, curious and always fair. Not much escaped George’s keen eye in his pursuit of the story and I always knew that in the end, he would not just get to the bottom of whatever he was investigating, but also get it right.”

A graduate of Lindsay High School, Hostetter began at The Fresno Bee in 1987 as a sports reporter, eventually covering business before taking over the city government beat. He worked on several projects that were pivotal to the region, including downtown Fresno revitalization and the closing of the Fresno Metropolitan Museum in 2010. The 2003 special section, “Broke ... and Broken,” chronicled the job crisis in the central San Joaquin Valley ad featured many bylines from Hostetter.

Hostetter loved sports and played rugby as a young man. While on the business beat during the week at The Bee, he often still would cover the region’s short-track car races on weekends.

He covered Fresno State athletics thoroughly, including the return of Jerry Tarkanian to his alma mater as basketball coach, the university’s problems with Title IX compliance and also wrongful termination lawsuits brought forth by women coaches.

Hostetter also created one of the paper’s first blogs, called the City Beat, where he often posted lengthy pieces on everything from his daily walks around the city to a 1968 football game at Fresno City College.

Jim Boren, The Bee’s former executive editor and current executive director for the Institute for Media and Public Trust at Fresno State, worked with Hostetter as both as reporter and an editor.

“He was one of the most conscientious journalists I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with,” Boren said.

Hostetter always had multiple stories working at one time but was detail oriented to the point “he could tell you more about the budget at city hall than the city hall‘s budget director,” Boren said.

When Hostetter wrote, it was from a place of authority, because he had spent the time gathering the facts. He regularly worked late into the evening as a story neared completion, pages of notes organized around his work station. Every fact on each page would be accompanied by a yellow Post-it note denoting sources of confirmation.

He never failed to ask the right questions and was able to get answers from people would sometimes sell him short. He often would wrap up interviews with a one last particularly relevant and critical question. Boren called his former colleague’s reporting style a “Columbo kind of thing,” referencing the television detective played by actor Peter Falk.

Fresno Bee Managing Editor John Rich worked with Hostetter through parts of four decades in both The Bee’s metro and sports departments. Rich said in an email to Bee staff that Hostetter “was a dogged journalist who broke many stories and helped the people of Fresno and the central San Joaquin Valley better understand their home.”

“George will be fondly remembered for his frugality, his quirky hats, his quick wit and his love of Kit Kat bars,” Rich said.

Hostetter regularly walked the streets of Fresno on his beat assignments, picking up discarded trash and disposing of it. He greeted all he met with dignity.

“Reporters are not supposed to be friends with those they cover,” Brand said, “but I can honestly say a day won’t go by when I won’t miss George.”

Hostetter is survived by wife Mary Hostetter; an aunt, Bernice Hostetter; daughter Kate Hoffman and husband Jason Hoffman; daughter Ally Hostetter; son Kirk Hostetter; and grandson Hunter Hoffman.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Hinds Hospice, 2490 W Shaw Ste. 101, or online www.hindshospice.org.

This story was originally published May 8, 2020 at 12:57 PM.