John Hohenberg accepted a position as the Edward Meeman Visiting Professor of Journalism at UT for 1976–77, served as the Gannett Professor of Journalism at the University of Kansas in 1977–78, and then returned to UT as professor in the Journalism Department. A distinguished journalist and journalism educator, Hohenberg was the author of 22 books—including a novel at age 80—ranging from The Professional Journalist, a standard basic writing textbook, to books about Bill Clinton, an exhaustive history of foreign correspondence, books dealing with the history and awarding of Pulitzer Prizes, and autobiography.
At age 17, he applied for a position at the Seattle Star, where the city editor said he could have a job if he could get the paper an interview with President Warren G. Harding, who was to visit Seattle the next day. He managed to have a less-than-a-minute conversation with Harding, in which he said he liked Seattle. Hohenberg turned the remark into a three-page story and launched his journalism career. His family moved to New York, and he worked for the New York Graphic, the first of many New York newspapers by which he was employed. After filling in for a friend at the Columbia School of Journalism in 1948, Hohenberg joined the Columbia faculty in 1950 and in 1953 became the administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, housed and administered by Columbia, and over which Columbia trustees had veto power until Hohenberg persuaded them to relinquish the privilege. He ended his career at Columbia in 1975—retiring both from the faculty and as administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes.