A journalist, newspaper publisher, college instructor and administrator, author, avid reader and book
reviewer, Francis Dean Moul was born on April 11, 1940, to Willis Francis (Snook) and Dorothy Dean
Moul at York. He died March 4, 2023 at the age of 82 at Lincoln. He graduated from Vermillion,
S.D., High School in 1958, and received a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in political science from the University of South Dakota at Vermillion in 1964 and 1966. He received his doctorate in environmental history from the University of Nebraska in 1998.
He received a Fulbright Scholarship to India at the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, in 1966. His
journalism endeavors included the Sioux City Journal, Boone News Republican and editorial writer at the Des Moines Register and Tribune. He was an instructor in political science at Wayne State College and then was a founder, CEO and Publisher of the Syracuse Journal-Democrat and Maverick Media, Inc. a printing and publishing firm in Syracuse.
He also was a proprietor of an antiquarian bookstore and art gallery in Lincoln and development officer
for the Nebraska Community Foundation. He was vice president for Institutional Relations at Chadron
State College and Executive Director of the Chadron State Foundation, retiring in 2001.
His book on the National Grasslands was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2006. He
wrote numerous articles for Nebraska publications, primarily on environmental issues, and wrote
hundreds of book reviews for the Lincoln Journal Star, Des Moines Register and Omaha World-Herald
and other newspapers and magazines.
He received numerous newspaper writing and publishing awards, won the James C. Sellers Award for
best article in Nebraska History magazine and the 2007 Nebraska Center for the Book award for best
nonfiction book, for the National Grasslands.
He was a charter founder, director, president and volunteer executive director for the Nebraska Wildlife
Federation and president of numerous organizations in Syracuse and Southeast Nebraska, president of
Nebraskans for Peace, and first associate chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party and member of the
Democratic National Committee.
He married Mary McVay, who died at the age of 25 in 1966. Their daughter, Jennifer, was adopted by
his second wife, Maxine Burnett (married on April 20, 1972), and they had a son, Jeff. Jennifer died in an automobile accident in 1985 at the age of 19.
He is survived by his wife, Maxine, of Lincoln; son Jeff (Diane Becket) and children, Adia, Annalise and Logan of Rapid City, S.D.; son Bogart (Donna) Nomad and sons Nik and Zak of Elkhorn; brother, John Moul of Boone, Iowa; sister, Judi Leonard of San Jose, Calif.; sisters-in-law, Karlene Moomey of Elwell, Mich., Kris Johnson of Lyons, and Mary Thomas of San Antonio, Texas; and numerous nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Mary; daughter, Jennifer; parents Willis Francis and Dorothy Dean Moul; sisters Miriam Moul and Maxine Carey; mother-in-law Gen McVay; and father and mother-in-law Einer and Eva Burnett.
A celebration of life will be held in Lincoln at a later date, with private family burial in the Fairmont
cemetery, next to his pioneer ancestors who came to Filmore County in 1872. In lieu of flowers, please
send memorials to the Jenny Fund at the Nebraska Community Foundation. Online condolences may be left at www.farmerandsonfuneralhome.com.
