IU to Honor Journalism School Grads
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana University will honor six School of Journalism alumni in September. The recipients include a former director of E.W. Scripps Co. and a World War II correspondent for the U.S. Army's weekly magazine.
July 30, 2013
News Release
Bloomington, Ind. — The Indiana University School of Journalism will honor six alumni, including Pulitzer Prize winners, a World War II correspondent, investigative reporters and journalism visionaries, at its third annual Distinguished Alumni Awards celebration Sept. 28.
“Since establishing these awards as part of our 2011 centennial celebration, we look forward each year to honoring our high-achieving alumni,” said Lesa Hatley Major, interim dean of the school. “These six have used their skills to forge impressive careers that have their roots in IU journalism, and we look forward to introducing them to our current students, faculty and community.”
Representatives from the alumni board, faculty, staff and the university at large select the award recipients. The guidelines state that those eligible for the award include former students “who have become leaders in journalism and other fields, as well as honorary alumni and students who majored in other fields but took significant journalism coursework or worked on IU student media.”
Meet the 2013 recipients:
The late Mark Ferree, '26, LHD'77, began his career as a newspaper boy in Richmond, Ind., and ended it as executive vice president and director of E.W. Scripps Co. As president of the American Newspaper Publishers Association in the 1960s, he defended newspapers' rights to cover national security issues.
For 30 years and in 47 countries, photojournalist Bill Foley, '77, BA'07 (telecommunications), documented global events, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1983 for spot news of victims and survivors of a massacre in Beirut.
The late David B. Richardson, BA'40, was a correspondent for Yank, the U.S. Army's weekly magazine, covering World War II from the battlefield, including Merrill's Marauders in Burma. He later was a foreign correspondent for Time, Life and U.S. News & World Report.
As a graduate student, the late Miriam Meloy Sturgeon, BA'38, MA'40, established IU's first journalism library. As an associate at the IU Foundation, she helped raise more than $1 million for the renovation of Ernie Pyle Hall. Sturgeon was national president of Theta Sigma Phi.
Nancy Weaver Teichert, BA'76, was an investigative journalist at the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger, the Denver Post and, for the last 20 years of her career, the Sacramento Bee. Retired since 2006, she has received numerous honors, including a share of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
Dan K. Thomasson, BA'60 (education), a Washington journalist for four decades and former vice president of Scripps Howard Newspapers, covered many of the country's defining moments, from Kennedy to Watergate to Waco. Now retired, he writes a syndicated column covering hot topics of the day.
The school will present the awards during a banquet at the Bloomington Monroe County Convention Center on Sept. 28. The evening begins with a reception, followed by dinner and presentation of the awards, which will include video tributes of the honorees' careers. The recipients and families and colleagues of the deceased recipients will be on hand to accept the awards.
Source: Indiana University