2009
Susan Allen has been an investigative reporter since 1984. She began her journalism career by helping to revive her high school newspaper. She worked at The Floyd County Times in Prestonsburg, The State Journal in Frankfort, and The Big Sandy News in Eastern Kentucky. She is known for vigorous defense of the First Amendment of open records and open meetings laws, and as a “grassroots crusader.” Allen won Society of Professional Journalists’ first place award for investigative reporting for a story series while at The State Journal; won numerous KPA awards as well. A 2003 editorial she wrote about a federal public corruption trial was adapted for a federal manual, “Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses.” She grew up in Wayland, Kentucky.
Byron Crawford grew up near Stanford, Kentucky, and studied at Murray State University. He was the Courier-Journal’s “Kentucky Columnist” for nearly thirty years, retiring in December 2008. Before joining the Courier-Journal in 1979, he was a host and producer of the syndicated traveling feature series, "SideRoads," on WHAS-Television News in Louisville. He hosted the Emmy-Award winning KET series, "Kentucky Life," during its first five seasons. Crawford also had a successful radio career at stations WAKY in Louisville, WCKY in Cincinnati and WHAS in Louisville. He has written two books of Kentucky stories. Crawford is the recipient of the Kentucky Arts Council's Governor's Award for media, the Kentucky Historical Confederation and Kentucky DAR state media awards, and the Kentucky Press Association and Lexington Herald-Leader's "Lewis Owens Award" for distinguished community service.
H. Harold Davis is a pioneer and leader in the field of color photography. He was former Chief Color Photographer at The Louisville Courier-Journal and in 1938, he was the first photographer to photograph a United States president in color. Davis was known for his color essays on life in the states of Kentucky and Indiana, he was published in the Courier-Journal’s Sunday Magazine. He photographed every president and presidential candidate from Franklin Roosevelt through Richard Nixon as well as every Kentucky candidate for governor and U.S. Senate. He repeatedly won awards in the University of Missouri’s “News Pictures of the Year” competitions. His work was chronicled in the book This Place Kentucky, which was published in 1975. He received a “Master Photographer” degree from the Professional Photographers Association of America in 1953. He was born in Corydon, Indiana. He retired in 1973. H. Harold Davis died in 1980.
Van Vance began his broadcasting career at WKAY in Glasgow while in high school, worked at WVLK while at the University of Kentucky, and was hired at WHAS in 1957. He built strong a sportscasting career, including work as the exclusive voice of the Louisville Cardinals in football and basketball, broadcasting three Final Fours including the 1986 championship. He was the “Voice of the Kentucky Colonels of the ABA,” that broadcast many Kentucky state tournaments in the Sweet 16 and over 40 Kentucky Derbies on both radio and TV. He hosted Kentucky’s top Sportstalk Radio show five nights a week and featured coach’s shows with Denny Crum and Rick Pitino. Vance also worked extensively with the Library of Congress at the American Printing House of the Blind, reading books and magazines. He was a 1952 graduate of Park City High School, and attended Western Kentucky University and the University of Kentucky. Vance retired in 1999 and was inducted into the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.
Thomas Shelby Watson had a fifty-year career in journalism where began at WBKY at the University of Kentucky. He was a Kentucky Broadcast Editor for the Associated Press and editor of his family newspaper and a radio news director. Watson also led news departments at WAKY, Louisville and WIL, St. Louis. Under his leadership, a special national AP award went to WAKY for being the first radio news department to contribute 1,000 stories used on the wire in one year. He and his WAKY team received a National Headliner Award for coverage of a chemical plant explosion. He is the author of three non-fiction books, award-winning documentaries, numerous magazines, and newspaper articles. From 1988 through 1993, he operated the critically acclaimed “The Salt River Arcadian,” a monthly newspaper in Taylorsville, Kentucky. Watson is the winner of two Louisville Bar Association gavel awards and a Louisville Civil War Roundtable award for historical journalism.
2008
Jack Crowner was a farm broadcasting stalwart for more than fifty years, he owns and operates Farm Service Radio Networks that are heard in Kentucky, Indiana and neighboring states. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Ralph Gabbard Distinguished Kentuckian Award from the Kentucky Broadcasters Association and the Front & Center Award from the Kentucky State Fair Board. He is the former Farm Director for WAVE in Louisville, WMT in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and television stations in Evansville, Indiana, and Lexington. Crowner was honored as 1990 National Farm Broadcaster of the Year by the National Association of Farm Broadcasters. He graduated from Michigan State University.
Don Edwards is a long-time local interest columnist with the Lexington Herald-Leader. He began his journalism career in Winchester in 1964 and moved to Lexington in 1966 where he wrote for The Lexington Herald, The Lexington Leader and then the Herald-Leader. He wrote a local interest column three days a week on topics ranging from Smiley Pete, the town dog, to politics to race relations. He has a collection of columns published such as Life is Like a Horse Race. He attended Eastern Kentucky University and the University of Kentucky. Edwards was born in Corbin.
Virginia Edwards has been president of Editorial Projects in Education since 1997 and editor of Education Week since 1989. She oversees the corporation that publishes Education Week and Teacher Magazine. She is a frequent speaker to educational policy groups. She previously worked with The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, assisting Ernest L. Boyer on a number of projects. She began her journalism career with The Courier-Journal, first as copy editor, then assistant regional editor, and then statehouse reporter covering education issues. She graduated from the University of Kentucky with degrees in journalism and political science.
T. George Harris has had an extensive career in magazine journalism, including founder and Editor-in-Chief of American Health (1981-1990); Editor-in-Chief of Psychology Today (1968-1979, 1989-1991); Senior Editor of Look(1962-1968); Bureau Chief for Time-Life-Fortune and correspondent for Time. He reported extensively on the Civil Rights movement. Under his leadership, Psychology Today (1972) and American Health (1983) received American Society of Magazine Editors-Columbia University Magazine of the Year awards, he was the first editor ever to be so selected for two different magazines. Harris received the Lifetime Award for Distinguished Contribution to the discipline from the American Psychology Association. He was named Magazine Professional of the Year in 2000 by AEJMC. Harris remains active in the magazine field. He was born in Simpson County, attended the University of Kentucky, and graduated from Yale University.
Kent Hollingsworth was editor of The Blood-Horse from 1963 to 1986. He oversaw the magazine’s growth from a circulation of less than 7,000 to 22,000. He wrote the weekly “What’s Going on Here” column; it was described as “the Thoroughbred industry’s conscience.” He served in the Army, then began journalism career as news photographer and sportswriter for the Lexington Leader. During his editorship of The Blood-Horse, Hollingsworth served as president of National Turf Writers Association and Thoroughbred Club of America. He chaired the Racing Hall of Fame Committee. After retirement from The Blood-Horse, he wrote columns for The Racing Times and Thoroughbred Times and served as a Distinguished Lecturer in equine law at the University of Louisville. He wrote five books, including The Kentucky Thoroughbred. Hollingsworth received undergraduate and law degrees from University of Kentucky. Kent Hollingsworth died in May of 1999.
William Ray Mofield developed the broadcast journalism programs at Murray State University and at Southern Illinois University. He was named Kentucky Communications Teacher of the Year in 1977 and received the first Murray State Regents’ Teaching Excellence Award for the College of Fine Arts and Communication in 1985. He was named Distinguished Professor of the Year by the Murray State Alumni Association in 1987. He received the Kentucky Broadcasters’ Distinguished Service Award in 1989. Mofield started Kentucky’s first FM radio station, and was a play-by-play announcer for the Kentucky state high school basketball tournament from 1946 to 1958 and conducted live radio interview with vice presidential candidate Alben Barkley for CBS on election night 1948. Mofield is a Hardin native, he graduated from Murray State and received his Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University. William Ray mofield died in 1995.
Al Tompkins is a group Leader for Broadcasting and Online at The Poynter Institute. He writes the daily “Al’s Morning Meeting” story idea column on Poynter.org read by more than 20,000 people. He is the author of Aim For The Heart: A Guide for TV Producers and Reporters; he is also a co-author of the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation’s Newsroom Ethics workbook. Before joining Poynter in 1998, Tompkins spent 25 years as a photojournalist, reporter, producer, anchor, assistant news director, special projects/investigations director, documentary producer, and news director. He received the 1999 Clarion Award for his documentary Saving Stefani. He is the winner of numerous other awards, including a national Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, seven National Headliner Awards, two Iris Awards, and the Robert F. Kennedy Award for International Reporting. He is a graduate of Western Kentucky University.
2007
Through his 31 year long career as a reporter and news director at Elizabethtown radio stations, Ron Boone was heard on several stations, including WIEL-AM, WASE-FM, WRZI-FM and WKMO-FM. He provided news, commentary, and public affairs programming to radio listeners in Hardin County from 1973 until his death in 2004. He was called “a big-time talent” who would have succeeded in a large market but chose to stay in a relatively small one and always thought of his work as public service. Boone was known for his diligent, fair, reliable and thoughtful reporting, with an emphasis on local stories and local viewpoints to make connections with his listeners. He was a graduate of Union College. He was born in Corbin and began his radio career there in 1964 at WCTT-AM.
Ron Jenkins is one of Kentucky’s leading community journalists. He served as editor of The (Henderson) Gleanerbetween 1972 and 2006. Under his leadership, The Gleaner won the Kentucky Press Association’s “General Excellence” award for newspapers with circulation of 10,001-25,000, 22 times in 25 years. He demonstrated that a small daily newspaper could achieve consistent excellence. Jenkins previously worked as a reporter with The Gleaner(1967-1R969), The Evansville Courier (1965-1967), and The (Evansville) Sunday Courier & Press (1970-1971) and as a news editor for The (Owensboro) Messenger-Inquirer (1964). He was born in Henderson and is a graduate of Murray State University.
Glen Kleine was instrumental in developing Eastern Kentucky University’s journalism program, serving as adviser and mentor to hundreds of future journalists. He came to EKU in 1967 from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, later served as chair of the Department of Communication and dean of the College of Applied Arts and Technology. He served as national president of Alpha Phi Gamma national journalism honorary from 1971 to 1975. He received the Distinguished Service Award for outstanding contribution to the philosophy and practice of cooperative education and career employment in 2000; he received the EKU National Alumni Association’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 2003. Kleine retired from EKU in 2003. He received a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Missouri and an Ed.D. from East Tennessee State University.
Ken Kurtz was born in West Virginia and worked in television news in that state, Indiana, and South Carolina before coming to Lexington in 1975 as news director and vice president of news for WKYT-TV. He became director of long range planning for WKYT and WYMT in 1988 and retired in 1989. He served as president of the Associated Press Broadcasters of Kentucky and on board of directors for Radio and Television News Directors’ Association. He was a frequent guest on KET’s “Comment on Kentucky.” He is active in journalism organizations post-retirement, including serving as Kentucky state chair for Society of Professional Journalists’ Project Sunshine, focusing on freedom of information issues. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College.
2006
Don Neagle is a co-owner and news director at WRUS-AM in Russellville, the only radio station in Logan County. He has been with WRUS since 1958 and continues to do 6:00-11:00 a.m. morning show including news, interviews, and listener calls. He began his career at WLCK-AM in Greensburg, his hometown, at the age of 16. Neagle received the Kentucky Broadcasters Association Kentucky Mike Award in 2005. He attended Western Kentucky University.
Larry Spitzer was staff photographer for The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times for more than 35 years, traveling throughout the state, often on very short notice. He was named photography assignments editor in 1982, a position he held through his retirement in 1995. He was part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team for 1975 coverage of court-ordered busing for school desegregation. Spitzer won numerous awards from National Press Photographers Association, Society of Professional Journalists, and International Association of Firefighters. His work has been published in Time and Life magazines and newspapers across the U.S. Active in the Society of Professional Journalists. He helped develop the student chapter at Western Kentucky University. Larry Spitzer died in July of 2016.
Larry Spitzer was staff photographer for The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times for more than 35 years, traveling throughout the state, often on very short notice. He was named photography assignments editor in 1982, a position he held through his retirement in 1995. He was part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team for 1975 coverage of court-ordered busing for school desegregation. Spitzer won numerous awards from National Press Photographers Association, Society of Professional Journalists, and International Association of Firefighters. His work has been published in Time and Life magazines and newspapers across the U.S. Active in the Society of Professional Journalists. He helped develop the student chapter at Western Kentucky University. Larry Spitzer died in July of 2016.
David Thompson has been the executive director of Kentucky Press Association, since September 1983. He transformed KPA into one of the top 10 press associations in the U.S., providing member newspapers with legal services, lobbying pressure, professional workshops, outstanding internship program and statewide classified advertising placement service. He previously held positions in both broadcast and print journalism, including serving as publisher and editor of the Georgetown News & Times. He is a past president of Newspaper Association Managers, international organization of state, and regional and national press association executive directors. He is a 1974 journalism graduate of the University of Kentucky.
Ferrell Wellman was chief of WAVE-TV’s Frankfort bureau for 16 years, covering the Kentucky legislature, state politics, and numerous stories on education, health care, the environment and economic development. He produced at least one major story on each of Kentucky’s 120 counties. From 1976 to 1979, he wrote the Capitol Watchlinecolumn appearing in 15 newspapers. He is a regular panelist and frequent guest host on Comment on Kentucky. He won CPB’s Silver Award for News for 1992 KET election coverage. Part of WHAS-AM team that won several national awards for “The Appalachian Project,” a 1992 radio documentary. He was born in Pikeville and is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University, he now teaches broadcast journalism there.
“Mr. Kentucky High School Sports.” Bob White covered high school sports for The Courier-Journal for 41 years, retiring in 2000. He covered all high school sports, boys and girls, including every football game between Louisville stalwarts Trinity and St. Xavier between 1968 and 2000. His presence at a game signaled that the game was special. He was a member of the Kentucky All-Star Basketball Hall of Fame. He received the distinguished service award from National High School Coaches Association in 1991. He received a journalism degree from University of Kentucky.
2005
Gene Clabes has a varied career as reporter, publisher, newspaper owner, and journalism educator. He began as Henderson Gleaner sports editor in 1963 prior to becoming managing editor of the Kentucky Kernel in 1966. After college, he wrote for The Evansville Courier, The Gleaner, and The Evansville Press. He bought The News Enterprisein Ludlow in 1988, then the three weekly Recorder Newspapers in 1990, serving as president, CEO, and publisher. Clabes sold the papers to The Community Press Newspapers in 1994 and served as senior publisher and chairman of the editorial board for three more years. President of the Kentucky Press Association in 1997. From 2001-04, he was a Freedom Forum visiting professional at Hampton University, teaching a variety of journalism courses, and developing the first-ever horsemanship program at a historically black university. He is currently Equine Director for the Kentucky Equine Education Project, combining his journalism skills with his love of horses and horsemanship.
Lee Denney has more than 40 years in broadcasting, including News Director-Anchor, WBKR-WOMI in Owensboro, since 1985. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including 2000 Kentucky General Assembly recognition and 2000 Mayor's Award of Excellence, both related to the stations' coverage of the January 2000 Owensboro tornado. He is an outstanding public servant and is recognized as a Kentucky Colonel. He is assistant manager/president of the board of the WBKR-WOMI Bell South Pioneers Christmas Wish program that helps 6,000 individuals annually. He is chair or co-chair of numerous other public service committees working on efforts for Owensboro veterans, children, and the homeless. Prior to joining WBKR-WOMI, Denney worked in radio and television in Kentucky, Indiana, Florida, Ohio, and California.
Bob Johnson worked for WHAS Radio and Television in Louisville from 1958 until 1978, starting as a newscast script writer before moving to on-air reporting and specializing in politics and government. He joined The Courier-Journal as a reporter and became a political writer in December 1979, a post he held nine years. Johnson became an assistant city editor in 1989 and assistant regional editor supervising state and Washington coverage, in 1991. As dean of Kentucky political reporters, he covered 12 national political conventions, every regular and special session of the Kentucky General Assembly from 1964 through 1988 and every election from 1963 through 1988. He was known for his keen understanding of politicians and their strategies. He retired from The Courier-Journal in 1997.
Marguerite McLaughlin was one of the first women general reporters for a Southern newspaper; she covered drama, music, and murder cases for the Lexington Herald and served as farm editor from 1917 to 1918. She was the first woman journalism teacher in the United States. She taught at the University of Kentucky for 38 years until 1950. She assisted Enoch Grehan in founding the UK School of Journalism. Her students included Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame members Joe Creason, Niel Plummer and Don Whitehead. She received the "Pro Ecclesiae et Pontificae" medal from Pope Pius XII in the early 1950s, the highest award available to a Catholic laywoman. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors from the University of Kentucky Alumni Association. After retirement from UK, she served as president of Welsh Printing Company. Marguerite McLaughlin died on November 25, 1961.
Bob Schulman came to Kentucky in 1968 after working for KING Broadcasting Company and Time, Inc. magazines. He joined the Sunday Magazine staff of The Courier-Journal and Times in 1968; he won the national Education Writers' Association award in 1970. WHAS-TV and radio commentaries, "One Man's Opinion," won Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Journalism award for best television editorial in 1971. From 1974-1981, he wrote the pioneering column of media criticism, "In All Fairness," published in The Courier Journal; he received Louisville Bar Association Gavel Award in 1976 for that column. Schulman also developed a series of "Minding the Media" reports for WHAS and hosted a weekly public radio discussion program, "Good Authority," which later moved to WHAS radio. He joined University of Louisville in 1984 and helped create forums and seminars to foster better communication between Kentucky news media, courts, and attorneys. He received a second Gavel Award in 1994 for this work. Schulman is the author of John Sherman Cooper: Global Kentuckian.
2004
Glen Bastin became WHAS Radio’s first News Director in 1972. (Before that time WHAS had maintained a combined news operation serving both radio and TV.) He was the voice of WHAS’ 5 p.m. “Broadcast of Record” throughout the 1970s; he directed coverage of major events including the tornadoes of 1974 and the 1975 implementation of school busing in Jefferson County. Bastin put together one of the largest local radio news operations in the country as WHAS-FM that was converted to Kentucky’s first all-news station in 1975. He hosted several KET broadcasts and syndicated the radio program Pondering Kentucky in the 1980s, which broadcast daily for over ten years on some 85 Kentucky radio stations. During his broadcasts, Bastin left little doubt of his deep love of the Commonwealth and its people. He serves today as Senior Ambassador and Chief Operating Officer of the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels.
After working as a reporter and editor for the Associated Press, the National Newspaper Association and the Worcester (Mass.) Telegram & Gazette, Maria Braden spent 21 years teaching journalism at the University of Kentucky. Before retiring in 2001, she taught courses in news reporting, magazine article writing, journalism ethics, public affairs reporting, media diversity and etymology. She also wrote articles and book reviews for a variety of newspapers and magazines and published three books: She Said What: Interviews with Women Newspaper Columnists (1993); Women Politicians and the Media (1996); and Getting the Message Across: Writing for the Mass Media (with Rick Roth, 1997). Braden received a national teaching award for excellence in teaching of writing from the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and was the first woman promoted to be a full professor in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications. Regretfully, Maria passed away in July of 2004. She will be missed.
John Egerton is an independent journalist and nonfiction author who has written broadly about social and cultural issues in the southern region of the United States. Born in Atlanta in 1935 and raised in Kentucky, where he got his formal education, he has lived for most of the past half-century in Nashville, Tennessee, with sojourns in Florida, Virginia, and Texas. His books and articles seek to make connections between historical and contemporary people, places, and events in the South. Among his books are The Americanization of Dixie, Generations, Southern Food, and Speak Now Against the Day.
Jon L. Fleischaker has represented numerous outlets for over three decades, including The Courier-Journal and Louisville Times Company, The New York Times Company, Gannett Co., Inc., The Hearst Corporation, The Kentucky Press Association, The Associated Press, assorted broadcasting outlets and public relations companies. He has been actively involved in creating legislation protecting the press in Kentucky, including authoring the Open Meetings and Open Records Acts as well as the Retraction Statute. He has actively litigated most major media issues in Kentucky, including defamation issues, invasion of privacy cases, access to information and source protection. Fleischaker is the only Kentucky lawyer listed in The Best Lawyers in America, listed for media law. He graduated with a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, magna cum lade (1970), Editor of The Law Review and received his B.A. from Swarthmore College (1967).
Eliza Piggott Underwood was born in 1896 near Bewelyville in Breckinridge County, Kentucky. She became the first woman editor of the Kentucky Kernel, first woman editor of the Kentuckian, and the first woman to graduate from the University of Kentucky's School of Journalism. She began working for the Lexington Herald while at UK, and was later promoted to State Editor, becoming the first woman to be state editor of a daily newspaper in Kentucky and one of the first in the nation. She married Tom Underwood, who became managing editor of The Herald. At age 60, she returned to UK to earn a master’s degree in library science. She joined the staff at the university library where she combined her journalism and library skills to edit the Barkley papers and edit the library newsletter. She died in Lexington on May 14, 1991.
2003
Bob Edwards hosted National Public Radio's Morning Edition. He held the position since the program was launched in November 1979, when asked to temporarily host the program. His national audience has grown to more than 9 million listeners daily, with more than 13 million people listening to him at least once a week. A Louisville native, Edwards graduated from the University of Louisville and earned his master's degree in broadcast journalism from The American University. He has won numerous awards include the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Edward R. Murrow Award, citing his "editorial leadership and on-air performance, Bob has created a standard for the industry." In 1999, he and Morning Edition received the George Foster Peabody Award. The Peabody Committee praised him as "a man who embodies the essence of excellence in radio." He is the author of Fridays with Red, a memoir of his 12 years of live conversations with legendary sportscaster Red Barber. He is working on a second book, a brief biography of Edward R. Murrow, and memoir that addresses his concerns about the deterioration of standards and values that afflicts journalism today.
Louise Hatmaker is editor, publisher and owner of the Jackson Times in Breathitt County and Beattyville Enterprise in Lee County. She is a longtime board member of the Kentucky Press Association, and was named most valuable member in 1997, recognizing more than 22 years of service. She is the recipient of the 1987 Lewis Owens Community Service Award from Lexington Herald-Leader. As a graduate of Cumberland College and student at Eastern Kentucky State Teachers College, she taught first grade at Hardburly Mining Company school in Perry County. She is active in education for children with intellectual disabilities. She was hired as a cub reporter at the Hazard Herald. She later reported roving pickets’ strife in coalfields in the early 1960s. She is an active volunteer worker and leader for 30 years in native Appalachia. Hatmaker participated in a successful campaign to make Lees College part of Hazard Community College. She is a member of Lees College Board of Trustees. She was the first woman president of Natural Bridge Park Association. She received the Eugene H. Combs Humanitarian Award.
Robert G. McGruder was a pioneering African American journalist and news executive, champion of diversity in newsrooms. A Louisville native, he grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and Campbellsburg, Kentucky. He graduated from Kent State University in 1963 and worked for the Dayton Journal Herald before becoming the first African American reporter for the Plain Dealer in Cleveland in 1963. He served two years in the U.S. Army, returning to the Plain Dealerin 1966. McGruder served as an assistant city editor from 1971 to 1973 before returning to reporting; he was named city editor in 1978 and managing editor in 1981. He joined the Detroit Free Press in 1986 as deputy managing editor; he was named managing editor/news in 1987, then managing editor in 1993. He was the first African American president of the Associated Press Managing Editors (1995), and the first to head news operations at the Free Presswhen promoted to executive editor in 1996. He received the 2001 John S. Knight Gold Medal, the highest honor given an employee of Knight-Ridder, parent of the Free Press. He was a five-time Pulitzer Prize juror. Robert G. McGruder died on April 12, 2002 at age 60.
Ed Ryan was a political columnist, reporter, editor and bureau chief for the Courier-Journal. A native of Owensboro and graduate of Kentucky Wesleyan College, he began his reporting career at the Owensboro Messenger Inquirerwhile in college. He worked for the Lexington Herald, the Cynthiana Democrat and the Louisville Times before joining the Courier-Journal. He was assigned to paper's Bowling Green Bureau before being named urban affairs writer in Louisville. Subsequently he served as political editor, Washington bureau chief and Frankfort bureau chief -- the only reporter in Courier-Journal history to fill all three posts. He covered the 1975, 1979 and 1983 Kentucky governor's races and 1976 and 1980 presidential campaigns. Ryan started the Courier-Journal's popular Sunday political column. His knowledge of politics and engaging personality won him easy access to politicians. He was particularly adept at profiling personalities and relationships that shape politics. Ryan died on May 1, 1984, at age 45, of a cerebral hemorrhage while covering the Indiana's governor's race.
Howard E. Staats was a reporter, editor and administrator in 10 Associated Press (AP) offices, including AP's headquarters in New York. He began his AP career as a newsman in Austin, followed by news assignments in Dallas and Houston. He represented AP's broadcast division in the Rocky Mountain states while stationed in Denver, then returned to Texas and for two years served as AP's broadcast sales representative for the state. In 1970, he returned to the news side, running the AP bureau in Spokane, Washington. In 1971, he was appointed bureau chief in Salt Lake City. Following a brief assignment in Utah and Idaho, he was promoted to chief of bureau in upstate New York, based in Albany where he served for seven years before moving to AP's headquarters. Following administrative assignments in New York and Washington, D.C., Staats returned to the news side with his appointment as Kentucky chief of bureau in 1984, a position he held until retiring from his 41-year career in 2002.
Carl West was an editor of the State Journal of Frankfort, he won plaudits in Frankfort and Washington as an aggressive, incisive, and intelligent reporter whose curiosity had no boundaries. Once becoming an editor, he used his experience, work ethic and patience to improve an already good medium-sized daily and to nurture and develop a generation of youthful journalistic talent. A Campbell County native who studied journalism at the University of Kentucky, he was a Frankfort correspondent for the Kentucky Post and covered the White House and Pentagon in Washington for the Scripps Howard News Service. A career highlight was his coverage of Watergate, the scandal that drove President Richard Nixon from office. West's contribution to Kentucky goes beyond journalism. He is also the founder of the Kentucky Book Fair, one of the state's most important annual literary and cultural events. Profits from the Book Fair go to local libraries.
2002
Jo-Ann Huff Albers was the director of the School of Journalism and Broadcasting at Western Kentucky University. A 1959 broadcasting graduate of Miami University, she later earned a master's degree in communication arts from Xavier University in 1962. She led Western Kentucky University's journalism department for more than a dozen years, started in 1987. In 1999, she was named director of the school, overseeing 21 full-time faculty members, six undergraduate degree programs and more than 850 undergraduate majors. She spent 20 years with the Cincinnati Enquirer in various reporting and editing positions. She served as Kentucky executive editor from 1979 to 1981, leaving to become editor and publisher of the Sturgis (Mich.) Journal. While serving as editor and publisher of the Public Opinion, spear-headed county development program that led to establishment of Office of Economic Development and first cooperative venture among five chambers of commerce in Franklin County, Pa. Albers also spent a year as a general news executive with Gannett in Rosslyn, Va., just prior to joining WKU. She led the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication as president from 1993 to 1994, and was honored as the 2000 Gerald Sass Journalism Administrator of the Year by Freedom Forum/ASJMC.
John S. Carroll was the editor of the Lexington Herald and the Lexington Herald-Leader from 1979 to 1991, a time when the paper was transformed from a provincial middle-market daily to a regional newspaper of influence in Kentucky. Raised the paper's standards, Carroll challenged the staff and supported the merger of the morning Herald and the afternoon Leader in 1983. Under his leadership, the paper won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for a series of articles about corruption in the University of Kentucky men's basketball program. The paper was a Pulitzer Prize finalist four times from 1988 to 1990 and won many other national awards. He directed a series of editorials on domestic violence in Kentucky, resulting in the paper's second Pulitzer in 1992. A scholarship at Alice Lloyd College for students in need in Appalachian Eastern Kentucky was established in his honor. He left the Herald-Leader in 1991 to become editor of the combined Baltimore Sun newspaper; he is currently editor and executive vice president of the Los Angeles Times.
Virginia Gaines Fox is an executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Kentucky Educational Television. She is a seventh-generation Kentuckian and 1961 elementary education graduate of Morehead State University. She received a master's degree in library science from the University of Kentucky in 1969, after joining KET in 1968. She became deputy executive director in 1975. She left KET in 1980 to become president of the Southern Educational Communications Association, later earning a 21st Century Award from America's Public Television Stations for SECA service. She became the founding director of the Satellite Educational Resources Consortium, the first public broadcaster/Department of Education interstate consortium for distance learning. She also created the first National Independent Television Satellite Schedule, serving more than 23 million students annually. Fox was the first public broadcasting representative selected by the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers for the Independent Television Service Board. As an active volunteer in many civic, professional, and educational organizations, served as a consultant, adviser, and volunteer on numerous boards. In addition, she served as founding director of the Organization of State Broadcasting Executives.
John S. Hager had distinguished careers as attorney, editor, and publisher; he also made his mark as a civic leader and philanthropist. He is a native of Owensboro and 1950 graduate of Princeton University. He graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1954, the same year he joined the firm that would become Sandidge, Holbrook, Craig, and Hager in 1960, when he became a partner. In 1973, he became co-publisher and co-editor of the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer. He tackled tough issues, including a radical overhaul of Kentucky's court system, which led to an American Bar Association Silver Gavel award in 1976. When he was named president and publisher in 1989, the Messenger-Inquirer had added higher education to the list; through his leadership with the Citizens Committee on Higher Education, Owensboro gained an independent community college. The newspaper earned the American Society of Newspaper Editors' designation as one of the 14 best small newspapers in America. In 1996, he was named Kentucky Press Association's "most valuable member." His energies and passion now focus on the Public Life Foundation of Owensboro, created with his family to foster community dialogue to resolve important public issues, ranging from childcare and school drop-outs, to healthcare access and riverfront development.
Dinh Phuc Le is an award-winning chief photographer for Louisville WLKY-TV. His career spans 40 years from motion pictures, to films for the South Vietnamese Army, to shooting for Japanese and American television. He worked for NBC and ABC in Saigon for nine years. He captured some of the most vivid, historically significant images of the Vietnam War, including film coverage of the young girl whose clothes were burned from her back when her village was hit by napalm. Many remember this same image from the Pulitzer-Prize winning photograph. He is heralded by NBC News President Julian Goodman as "a powerful piece of film which has now become of historic importance" and earned third-place National Press Photographers Association Spot News award. As sound man for NBC when a Viet Cong suspect was executed by a South Vietnamese general, he told his photographer to quickly unload and reload his camera. Moments later, the general ordered all film seized, but Dinh had already tucked away the film in his jacket. Dangerous assignments led to his being wounded, and escaping serious injury when a military helicopter crashed in Vietnam. Shortly after arriving at WLKY-TV, he survived a helicopter crash on I-71 while covering a snowstorm. Dinh worked at the Louisville station for 24 years, with seven as chief photographer. In 1998, he received the Board of Governor's Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ohio Valley Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Science - that organization's highest honor.
Brian Rublein was a news director at Louisville's WHAS-AM radio station for 21 years. He is a graduate of Michigan State University with a bachelor's and master's degrees in broadcast journalism. He is the first winner of the Radio and Television News Directors Association Geller Newsroom Management Achievement Award in 2000. The award was created to "bring attention to those who create and foster a newsroom environment that stimulates productivity, growth and development." He is praised for not only teaching his fellow journalists, but joining in writing, editing and producing their stories. He led WHAS-AM to become one of the most respected local news operations in the country.
2001
Nick Clooney is a native of Maysville. He began his broadcasting career on radio station WFTM while a high school student. He had an early career in Wilmington, Delaware, and the American Forces Network in Germany. He was a weekend news anchor and production director for five years at WKYT-TV, Lexington; and program director for WLAP Radio. He has written three columns a week for Cincinnati and Kentucky Post since 1989. His work has been reprinted nationally. He was host and writer-researcher for American Movie Classics’ cable channel and a syndicated radio program, in each case searching for little-known facts about movies and music of the past 75 years. He has been in news and broadcasting for nearly 50 years. He has accumulated more than 300 awards, including honorary doctorate of Fine Arts from Northern Kentucky University and Thomas More Presidential Medal from Thomas More College.
Virginia Harris Combs is a native of Lee County and longtime columnist for the Whitesburg Mountain Eagle. After graduation from Kentucky Wesleyan College, she became a second grade and high school English teacher in the Whitesburg schools for three decades; she started the high school newspaper. In her weekly column, “Family and Friends,” which was signed simply “Virginia,” she wrote about the small happenings in the community—births, deaths, marriages, honors, who had who to dinner and little things about herself. Her columns contained wise sayings, home remedies, political commentary, and small-town happenings that the readers loved, including doses of English grammar usage. She kept it up for more than 40 years, even after she had moved to Lexington in later life. One civic leader said, “She had a heart of gold and a love for her students."
William R. Grant was a native of Winchester and graduate from the University of Kentucky in 1965, where he was editor-in-chief of The Kentucky Kernel and the first person to receive a master’s degree in mass communications. He had an early career in print journalism as a writer for The Courier-Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Detroit Free Press and The Lexington Leader. He was a Neiman Fellow at Harvard from 1979 to 1980. He entered broadcast journalism in 1983. He is a major contributor to public television programming. He was director of science, natural history, and features program for WNET Public Television as well as executive producer and executive in charge of production. He was a producer of The American President and Stephen Hawking’s Universe, among other major public television programs. He was executive editor for Nova, and managing editor for award-winning series, Frontline. He won major national awards including five from the National Council for the Advancement of Education Writing, two Charles Stewart Mott Education Writing Awards, American Bar Association Silver Gavel, two Peabody awards and six Emmys. He was author of numerous publications and papers on a variety of subjects. He died in 2016.
Guy Hatfield was a publisher of three strong weekly newspapers in Kentucky – the Citizen Voice & Times in Irvine, the Clay City Times and the Flemingsburg Gazette. He was Kentucky’s youngest publisher when he bought his first paper in 1973 and was the youngest president of the Kentucky Weekly Newspaper Association – and the only person to head that organization three times. He was president of the Kentucky Press Association in 1998, during which he visited every paper in the state. He was named Most Valuable Member of Kentucky Press Association after serving on its board for 13 years and heading several important committees. He won 542 awards over the years from Kentucky Press Association, WKPA and the National Newspaper Association for excellence in writing, editing and photography. His Irvine paper was named best Kentucky weekly in its class 16 times since 1975, and second six times. He was a staunch defender of the First Amendment… he uncovered many stories of corruption in government and schools in his area. He was recognized by Boy Scouts of America for volunteer service. Guy Hatfield III died on February 4, 2005.
Monica Kaufman is a native Louisvillian and a graduate of the University of Louisville. She worked as a reporter for four years at The Louisville Times, and in public relations at Brown-Forman Distilleries before joining WHAS-TV as reporter and news anchor. She joined WSB-TV in Atlanta in 1975, as news anchor for three evening newscasts. She won 23 local and Southern Regional Emmy Awards over the years. In 1992, the Women’s Sports Foundation presented her the Women’s Sports Journalism Award for local television reporting for her investigation report on the Georgia High School Association for its exclusion of recognition of women. She is recognized by the Atlanta Chapter of Society of Professional Journalists for a documentary on menopause. She received two commendations from the National American Women in Radio and Television in competition with network programs. She received the Women of Achievement Award from Metropolitan Atlantic YWCA; she was the first black and second women to head Metropolitan United Way. She was named the 1993 Citizen-Broadcaster of the Year by Georgia Broadcasters Association, and 2001 Broadcaster of the Year by the University of Georgia.
2000
Mike Barry was probably the last of the great personal journalists in Kentucky, a reputation earned as editor of the Kentucky Irish American, a feisty weekly newspaper published in Louisville from 1898 to 1968. John Michael “Mike” Barry was editor from 1950 until the paper ceased. He spent his entire lifetime working in various positions at the Irish American and later as a sports columnist for the Louisville Times. He also wrote a back-page sports column for his family newspaper, billing himself as “the world’s greatest handicapper.” He was a sports commentator for WAVE radio and television; and a track announcer. He served in the Pacific during World War II as a captain in the assault Signal Corps. He made his journalistic mark and gained a national reputation with blistering but amusing editorials in his weekly paper against local, state, and national political figures, especially “Happy” Chandler, Louie Nunn, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Joseph McCarthy. He regularly lambasted the Courier-Journal. He is widely read and quoted throughout Kentucky. Famed American sports writer, Red Smith once said, “Around our house the Kentucky Irish American rates above bread and just below whiskey as one of the necessities of life.” Barry died in 1992.
Oscar L. Combs is a native of Jeff in Perry County, and got early newspaper experience as a high school sophomore writing high school regional sports news for the Courier-Journal. After attending Cumberland College, he started work as news editor of the Hazard Herald in 1965. Four years later he was named editor of the Eastern Kentucky Voice, a paper he later purchased along with the Tri-City News. He turned the Voice into a crusading weekly paper without regard for the whims and wishes of controlling forces in the county. He spoke out strongly against strip mining in the region, corrupt county officials and civic leaders, many times at his own peril. He is frequently recognized for journalistic excellence by the Kentucky Press Association. He sold his papers, moved to Lexington and started The Cats’ Pause, a new kind of tabloid newspaper dedicated to coverage of University of Kentucky sports. Instant success followed, and within 10 years the publication had paid subscribers in every state and some foreign countries. The paper was not a cheerleader or a muckraker but an appropriate blend of both. He sold the paper to Landmark Community Newspapers in 1997 but continues to write a regular column.
John Lewis Hampton is a native of Verda, Harlan County and a graduate of the University of Kentucky where he was editor-in-chief of the Kentucky Kernel. He was named Outstanding Journalism Graduate in 1959. He worked for the Associated Press in Louisville and Lexington before joining the Courier-Journal, becoming chief of the Bluegrass Bureau. He served 10 years as a writer and editor for The National Observer, a national weekly published by Dow Jones & Co. He covered the 1968 presidential campaign and the anti-war demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He also reported on the killing of four students at Kent State University by National Guardsmen. He was editor of the Miami Herald for 21 years, during which time his staff won two Pulitzer Prizes, one of which was awarded to the editorial board as a unit in 1983 for a year-long campaign to free Haitian boat people imprisoned in Miami. The second award went to the editorial cartoonist of the paper in 1996. He received a Master of Arts degree in Communications and Journalism from Stanford University. He was named to the UK Hall of Distinguished Alumni in 1975.
Mary Jeffries is a longtime award-winning newscaster at WHAS Radio. After graduation from Western Kentucky University in 1981, she worked two years at radio stations in Eminence and Elizabethtown. She joined the news department of WHAS Radio in 1983 as a reporter. She later became assistant news director. Jefferies received two Peabody Awards—one for a documentary about schizophrenia, another about Louisville’s House of Ruth, which ministers to women who have AIDS. She also won two national Associated Press awards, two Headliner Awards, two Scripps-Howard Awards, two national awards from the Radio-Television News Directors Association, one for best large market newscast in the nation, and two Gabriels. She produced numerous in-depth documentaries about a variety of topics and covered top local stories, including such varied events as the Carollton bus crash and the court-martial of a Louisville Marine given a new trial after being found guilty of assaulting the wife of a fellow Marine. She now anchors late afternoon newscasts.
Timothy M. Kelly is a native of Ashland; he began his newspaper career at age 17 as a part-time sportswriter for the Ashland Daily Independent. He later was a sportswriter and copy editor in Huntington, Miami and Louisville. At age 25, he was named executive sports editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, followed by key editor positions at the Dallas Times Herald, Denver Post, Daily News of Los Angeles and the Orange County (CA) Register. He was managing editor in Denver and Orange County when papers won Pulitzer Prizes. He returned to Kentucky in 1989 as executive editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader; and became editor two years later and publisher in 1996. The paper won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing while he was editor. He is a winner of the Ida B. Wells Award for diversity achievements in the news industry in 1999. He received the Knight-Ridder Excellence Award for community service in 1995 as a result of public-service journalism projects published by the Herald-Leader while he was editor. He is an honor graduate of University of Miami.
Theodore Poston was a trailblazing journalist who was believed to be the first African American to cross the color line into the newsroom of a metropolitan “white” newspaper. He was born in 1906 in Hopkinsville. He was a graduate of Tennessee State University. He moved to New York in 1928 during the last years of the Harlem Renaissance; he became friends with some of its central figures. He worked several years for various black newspapers in New York and surrounding area; he was hired in 1936 by the New York Post, a newspaper known then as the liberal dissident in a field of conservative dailies. Poston covered numerous national stories for the Post, including the spreading civil rights movement in the South, the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, and the trial of Byron de la Beckwith for the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evars. His coverage in 1948 of the “Little Scottsboro” trial was cited as one of the Top 100 Best Works of American Journalism by New York University School of Journalism; he received the George Polk Award for excellence in national reporting. He was called the “dean of black journalists,” and he retired from the Post in 1972. Poston died in 1974.