Shirrel Rhoades

Shirrel Rhoades (/ˈʃɜːrəl ˈroʊdz/ SHUR-əl ROHDZ; born May 19, 1942) is an American writer, publisher, professor, filmmaker, and the former executive vice president of Marvel Entertainment.

Shirrel Rhoades was born in rural Wilkes County, North Carolina. His father owned a furniture store where his mother helped out. He has a brother, Bill, and a sister, Dawn, both younger by ten and thirteen years.

Rhoades was raised in Mulberry, North Carolina, and attended Wilkes Central High School. He was voted Most Versatile and was a member of the yearbook staff.

After graduating in 1960, he attended Wake Forest University on the George Foster Hankins Scholarship, before transferring to Stetson University, where he received his BA in Fine Arts in 1964. He also holds graduate credits in children's literature from Chapman University.

After college, Rhoades started out as a layout artist with The Florida Times-Union. He quickly became the Sunday Magazine's assistant editor and chief feature writer, as well as the newspaper's film and theater critic. There he won Associated Press and Florida Press Association awards for feature writing.

In 1968, Rhoades became the executive editor of Etienne Dupuch Jr. Publications, the Nassau-based publisher of The Bahamas Handbook and other travel and educational titles. In 1972, he returned to the States to launch Directions (a travel magazine for the Great Smoky Mountains region) and created an annual book series and quarterly travel publication about the Cayman Islands.

In 1973, he joined Open Court Publishing in Illinois to launch Cricket, a literary magazine for children. In charge of Open Court's Magazine Division, he launched a British edition called Cricket & Company and oversaw London-based Encounter Magazine.

In 1976, Rhoades became associate publisher of Harper's Magazine during the editorship of Lewis Lapham. Three years later, he was recruited to Charter Publishing as vice president of consumer marketing for Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, and Sport.