Edward Whaley Seabrook Hull Papers

Edward Whaley Seabrook Hull was born in 1923 in Washington, D.C. He was a journalist and expert in marine science and rocketry. He published widely on a variety of subjects and was a skilled photographer and a poet. He was married to Nellie Phinizy Fortson and they had four children.

In 1939, Hull attended Union College and was working towards a degree in Physics when he left in 1942 to volunteer for World War II flight training. During WWII, he served as a Marine Corps pilot and saw action in the Pacific. He flew an unarmed reconnaissance aircraft over Iwo Jima and earned an Air Medal.

A journalist from 1947 to 1972, he chiefly lived in the Washington, D.C. area, with two years in London. He focused on the sciences, technology, government, and business. During this time, he was Bureau Chief of McGraw-Hill World News in London (1954 to 1956); Associate Editor of Missiles & Rockets (1957 to 1958); Editor and Publisher of Newsette (1957 to 1960); Editor of Ocean Science News (1962 to 1973); Editor and Publisher of Geo-Marine Technology (1964 to 1967); and a columnist for National Defense Magazine (1964 to 1974). In 1964, Hull wrote The Bountiful Sea, which was published in the United States and England and translated into Japanese and Spanish.

From 1969 to 1970, Hull attended the University of Rhode Island and earned a Master’s degree in Marine Affairs. He was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Ocean Studies Group from 1970 to 1971. From 1973 to 1976, Hull worked as a consultant to the federal government on coastal and ocean management. In 1976, he began working on his Ph.D. in Marine Science at the University of South Carolina, receiving his degree in 1987.

After receiving his Ph.D., Hull became active in photography and writing circles. He was on the boards of the South Carolina Writers Workshop and the Poetry Society of South Carolina. He was the editor of PEGASUS, a newsletter for and about poets and writers from 1995 to 1999.