Documenting Arlington's History

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O.K. Carter is a former editor and publisher of the Arlington Citizen-Journal, and was also Arlington publisher and columnist for the Star-Telegram. He was founding editor of Arlington Today Magazine. As a member of the Star-Telegram editorial board he conducted more than a thousand political endorsement interviews.

 

Carter semi-retired from the Star-Telegram in 2008 after more than 10,000 columns and editorials, along with more than 100 assorted journalism awards for everything from editorials and feature writing to columns. He also served on the Tarrant County College board of trustees for seven years (2010 to 2017), while also teaching creative writing at UTA. Add that to more than a thousand magazine articles (topics range from serial killers and lemur DNA to mini-robots), script writing more than 500 TV news shows, four fiction novels – he’s working on his fifth right now – and also writing the definitive book of  Arlington’s colorful  history, Caddos, Cotton and Cowboys: Essays on Arlington. He’s also produced a number of video mini-documentaries on Arlington, all of which you can check out on YouTube. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of North Texas and someday might even finish his doctorate at UTA.

 

 Carter’s journalism career led to an interest and then expertise in Arlington’s history. He’s won both the Texas Preservation Commission’s William Jary Award as author of the best local history preservation book of that year and the Texas Sierra Club’s top award for environmental reporting. That’s why today he’s not talking about writing or videos but the city’s economic history and changing brands over almost 150 years.