Hank Plante

Hank Plante began his journalism career as a copyboy for the Washington Post. Plante developed a love for journalism there, worked on the city desk, and became managing editor at Sentinel Newspapers. He then moved to television, in which he worked at KHJ-TV (Los Angeles), KRIV-TV (Houston), KMSP-TV (Minneapolis), WVEC-TV (Norfolk) and, in Washington, D.C., as assignment editor at WTTG-TV and news editor at WRC Radio. In the mid-1980s, Plante moved to San Francisco, where at CBS affiliate KPIX-TV, he covered the AIDS epidemic, work for which he earned a Peabody Award and local Emmy Awards. During 25 years at KPIX, Plante—one of the country’s first openly gay TV journalists—worked as a reporter, anchor, and political editor. At age 60, Plante was inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle, and in March 2010, Plante retired from KPIX.