CLASS OF 1996
Fred Seaton’s media career started at the age of six in the composing room of his father’s Manhattan, Kansas newspaper. All through his public school years, he worked on the paper, doing every job in the plant.
He got into radio at Kansas State College of Agriculture & Applied Science (now Kansas State), broadcasting all types of sports events on university-owned KSAC. In 1937 he went to Hastings joining his father and brother becoming general manager of the Hastings Tribune which the family had just purchased.
The family started KHAS Hastings in 1941 with Fred Seaton as president. They then expanded into Kansas, purchasing KGGF Coffeyville and building KMAN Manhattan. In 1956 they put KHAS -TV Hastings on the air, family-owned for 40 years.
Mr. Seaton went on into public service, first as a Nebraska State Senator, then to the Senate in Washington, D.C. He was named Assistant Secretary of Defense and served in key Pentagon activities during the Eisenhower administration. In 1956, he was named Secretary of Interior where he was given much of the credit for Alaska and Hawaii being granted statehood.
Fred passed away on January 16, 1974.
