Mark Pearson (journalist)

Mark Robert Person was born September 8, 1957, in Lafayette, Indiana, the son of June and Robert Pearson.[1] The family subsequently moved to Naperville, Illinois, where Pearson attended public schools, graduating from Naperville Central High School in 1975.[1] Pearson then enrolled at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, as a journalism major, graduating there in 1979.[1]

After meeting his wife and marrying during his college years, Pearson returned to the Midwest, taking a position with Des Moines, Iowa, radio station WHO-AM, where he worked in the station's farm department.[1] Pearson would become a specialist in agricultural journalism and would soon earn the top honor in the field, receiving the DeKalb Oscar in 1980.[1]

Pearson also worked in print journalism as the markets editor for Successful Farming magazine.[1] Pearson served for a time during the early 1980s as assistant secretary of the Iowa Department of Agriculture.[2]

In 1985, Pearson left Iowa to take a position as Director of Agricultural Programming for Minnesota Public Radio, coordinating farm programing to a group of about fifty stations in Minnesota and Iowa.[1] He also entered the United States Naval Reserves the following year, working as a Military Intelligence officer, eventually attaining the rank of lieutenant commander.[1]

Pearson returned to Iowa in 1988, buying a small farm at Thayer and taking a position as Director of Agricultural Planning and Development at Southwestern Community College in Creston, where he worked with farmers of the region helping to improve their agricultural operations.[1]

In 1991, Pearson took over as host of Iowa Public Television's Market to Market program, a popular syndicated series.[1] He would also anchor IPT's coverage of the Iowa State Fair for more than a decade, taking over for Bill Riley, and would work as a public speaker, delivering talks to a wide range of organizations on agricultural themes.

Pearson and his family moved to East Peru, Iowa, in 1995, where they began a new grain and livestock farm, which grew into a substantial operation.[1] Pearson would remain a resident of East Peru for the rest of his life.

Mark Pearson died June 2, 2012, at a farm in rural Madison County, Iowa, the victim of an apparent heart attack.[2] He was 54 years old at the time of his death.

In July 2012, Iowa Public television chose Mark Pearson's son, Mike Pearson, manager of the family farm and himself a reporter for Iowa Public Radio Station WOI-AM as the new host of the Market to Market program.[2]