Jerry Hulse Retiring

Travel columnist Jerry Hulse retires this week after 39 years with the Los Angeles Times, 30 of which were spent as travel editor.

Hulse will continue to contribute his Travel Tips column to the Sunday Travel Section, as well as to travel and write occasional destination pieces for The Times and other publications.

In 1987, Hulse was awarded the French Legion of Honor, France’s highest accolade, for travel stories on France. He also won four Lowell Thomas Travel Awards, Mexico’s Pluma de Plata Award, and the Pacific Area Travel Assn.’s Gold Award, among many others.

Hulse came to The Times in 1952 as a general assignment news reporter. In 1960, he was named travel editor.

At the time of his appointment, the Travel Section was two pages in the back of the business section. Under his direction, it grew into one of the largest and most respected travel sections in the country.

During his career, Hulse estimates he has traveled about 3 million miles. In 1974, while the Concorde was still an experimental aircraft, he flew aboard the supersonic jet on a 6 1/2-hour flight to Europe and back in a single afternoon. In contrast, years earlier he once spent 19 hours aboard a twin-engine propeller plane between Los Angeles and Honolulu.

The 3 million miles logged by Hulse has taken him 61 times to Europe and on dozens of trips to the Orient, the Middle East, South America and the South Seas.

In addition to his travel writing, Hulse’s nonfiction book “Jody,” about his search for his wife’s natural mother, was published in 15 countries.