Mross, Thomason named to new positions

In a floor meeting with the staff of The Sentinel-Record on Monday, General Manager Gary Troutman and Editor Mark Gregory announced the promotion of two senior staff members to management positions at The Sentinel-Record, effective today.

Steven Mross, a 26-year veteran of The Sentinel-Record, was named managing editor. Mross has been a staff writer who primarily covered the court system and law enforcement.

Don Thomason, who has worked cumulatively for The Sentinel-Record for 16 years, was named associate editor for news. Thomason has been a staff writer who primarily covered city government.

Thomason will continue with his reporting duties, in addition to new management duties in the newsroom, while Mross will transition over the next several weeks to features and editorial writing for the editorial page, Gregory said.

"We are proud to be able to announce these promotions of two long-term, dedicated employees and continue to produce the best newspaper possible for Hot Springs and the surrounding area," Gregory said.

"Steven Mross has a wit and a talent for making even everyday life seem humorous, but he is also capable of producing in-depth features that are important to our community," he said.

"Don Thomason is a true hard-hat journalist, known for coming early and staying late. Don will be an integral part of keeping our news product on track," Gregory said.

Mross says he was an "Army brat" born in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1965, but grew up in Arkansas and graduated from Hope High School in 1984.

He graduated from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia in 1988 with a B.A. in mass media communications and a minor in English. While still at HSU, he interned one summer at the Texarkana Gazette. Shortly after graduating from HSU, he began as an intern at The Sentinel-Record and was soon hired full-time in August 1988.

Thomason was born in Hot Springs and has lived most of his life in Hot Springs except for three and a half years in the U.S. Army and six years in El Dorado. He graduated from Hot Springs High School in 1965 and attended management seminars at University of Georgia-Athens, Florida State University in Tallahassee, and Indiana University in Bloomington.

Thomason worked for the El Dorado News-Times for two and a half years and four years with The Sentinel-Record starting in 1976. He returned to The Sentinel-Record in December 2002.

Thomason was married to the late Linda Hefley Thomason for 42 and a half years. They have two grown sons and three grandchildren.

"I look forward to continuing to work with The Sentinel-Record staff to help produce a top-quality, award-winning newspaper," he said.

Local on 09/30/2014

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