Herbert Aubrey Felkel

Last updated October 8, 2026

Herbert Aubrey Felkel, whose identification with journalism began in his university days and has continued to the present time, is one of the most powerful and aggressive young newspaper men in Pensacola, where he is editor of the News. His experience has proven valuable to him and has brought him to a position of prominence in his chosen field of work. He is today the youngest editor of a daily paper in Florida and probably in the entire south, as well as the youngest member of the Associated Press. He was born in De Funiak Springs, Florida, June 23, 1888, and is a son of Henry Noel and Sofronia (Hoag) Felkel, the former a native of Leon county, Florida, and the latter of Bainbridge, Georgia. The father was reared in his native section and there became prominent in educational circles, serving as the first principal of the Leon high school and as the first president of the State Normal School at De Funiak Springs. He afterward became principal of the State School for the Deaf and Blind at St. Augustine and held this position at the time of his death, which occurred in 1905. He was a devout Methodist, and his political support was given to the democratic party. His wife has also passed away, her death having occurred at Tallahassee in 1906. They had two children besides the subject of this review: H. Russell, who is twenty-seven years of age and a clerk in the Leon Hotel at Tallahassee; and Lillian Effie, who married James Gordon Pearce, of Jacksonville.

Herbert A. Felkel was educated in the public schools of Leon county and after graduating from the high school entered the Florida State College at Tallahassee. From there he went to the University of Chattanooga and later attended the University of Florida, at Gainesville, where he became prominent in many phases of community life. It was here he first became connected with the newspaper business, in which he has since attained success, for he founded and named the Florida Pennant, the first student publication ever issued in the university. This paper is still in existence as a monthly magazine. Mr. Felkel became its first editor and, aided by the power of bis paper and his unusual ability in its management, became a force in the university, influencing to a great degree its thought and opinion. He was at that time what he has been ever since, an independent journalist, and this in the end deprived him of his degree, for some of his writings met with the disfavor of the faculty and the editor was expelled by Andrew Sledd on the day his class was graduated. After leaving school Mr. Felkel continued his journalistic work and has now been in the newspaper business six years, during the last four of which he has been connected with the Pensacola News. For three years he has been its editor, with the distinction of being the youngest editor of a daily in Florida, and by his able, aggressive and well directed efforts has made the journal a power and a vital force in community affairs.

Fraternally Mr. Felkel is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and Alpha Tau Omega, a Greek letter college society. He belongs to the state militia and is active in the affairs of the Osceola Club. His religious views are in accord with the doctrines of the Methodist church, and politically he gives his support to the democratic party. Although but twenty-five years of age, he is already one of the influential men of Pensacola, a man of excellent special training, broad views and modern ideas, and the prosperity he has already won is a pleasant augury of his future accomplishments.