| IU School of Journalism 907 E. Seventh St. Bloomington, IN 47405 |
Contact: Beth Moellers Director of Communications, School of Journalism 812-855-6317 Email |
Contact: George Vlahakis Media Manager, Indiana University Communications 812-855-0846 Email |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 1, 2011
– by George Vlahakis
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The inaugural recipients of the school’s Distinguished Alumni Award include five of the school’s Pulitzer Prize winners – including Ernie Pyle, whose name adorns the school’s building — and another alumnus who was honored when his paper was awarded a Pulitzer for public service.
Among those being inducted are an alumnus who led the journalism program for 30 years, two newspaper publishers who foster professional advancement through the Poynter Institute, a founder of one of the world’s largest PR companies, a guiding force at the Associated Press as it grew in influence and a photojournalist whose pictures helped to bring about civil rights history.
Three women – the first female editor of the Indiana Daily Student, a co-creator of the iconic I Love Lucy television show and a retired placement director who has been closely associated with the program longer than any other person – also will be honored.
"These awards celebrate the great history of one of the oldest journalism programs in the world," said Bradley J. Hamm, dean of the School of Journalism. "The contributions of these 15 people are immeasurable, and we are very proud to honor them this year.
"The centennial celebration is a perfect time to recognize the first class of recipients. We know that with more than 10,000 current alumni, we have many outstanding people to select in the future," Hamm added.
The induction ceremony will take place Friday, Sept. 16, a part of a special weekend of activities Sept. 15-18 to celebrate 100 years of journalism education at IU. Other activities will include reunions, professional breakout sessions, banquets and a screening of a film about Pyle.
Complete information about the weekend's activities and online registration is on the website.
With the graduation of the 2011 class in May, the IU School of Journalism now has more than 10,000 living alumni.
Here is information about each of the inductees:
Florence Myrick Ahl, BA 1899
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She also was president of the Centerville Woman’s Club, a charter member of the Collegiate Club and the Scribblers. She died in 1946.
Marjorie (Smith) Blewett, BA'48
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She continues to be involved with the school, serving as its historian and as a member of its alumni board.
Kent Cooper, LHD’41
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In 1910, Cooper moved to New York as traveling inspector of telephone circuits for the AP and moved up the management ranks to the position of executive director. He developed a mechanism to send photographs by wire and established AP in Britain, eventually breaking Reuters’ monopoly in Europe.
He established four journalism scholarships at IU before his death in 1965.
I. Wilmer Counts, MS’54 (Education), EdD’67
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In 1963, after stints as an AP photographer and picture editor in Chicago and Indianapolis, Counts joined IU’s journalism faculty and directed and developed the school’s photo and visual communication sequence through a period of phenomenal growth. He retired 32 years later and died in 2001.
Madelyn Pugh Davis, BA’42
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Davis and Carroll worked together for more than 50 years and received a Laurel Award for TV Writing Achievement from the Writers Guild of America. Davis, also a recipient of IU’s Distinguished Alumni Service Award, died this past April.
Michel du Cille, BA’85
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His second Pulitzer, also for the Herald, was for a photo essay of crack cocaine addicts in a Miami housing project.
In 1988, he joined The Washington Post as picture editor, and he eventually became head of the Post’s photojournalism staff. The third Pulitzer, awarded to the newspaper for public service, came in 2008 and included his role in the coverage of treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Thomas French, BA’81
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In 2009, French left the paper to join the journalism school faculty as the Riley Endowed Chair in Journalism. In addition to his reporting, French also leads writing workshops across the United States and worldwide. He is a writing fellow at the Poynter Institute.
John W. Hill, LHD’71
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In 1934, Hill moved the company headquarters to New York to counsel the American Iron and Steel Institute. Other clients included trade associations and companies such as Proctor & Gamble, Texaco and Gillette. He led the company until 1962 and remained involved with it until his death in 1977.
Donald Ring Mellett, ’14
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He worked at several newspapers across Indiana and Ohio before becoming the editor of the Canton paper. His journalism campaigns against corruption in the police department, school system and hospital on the editorial pages provoked death threats against him and his family. On July 26, 1926, he was gunned down outside his home. In the trial that followed, three men and the police chief were sentenced to life in prison.
Gene Miller, BA’50, DHL’77
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Over a 48-year career, Miller covered a wide array of local, national and international stories. He was the first print journalist to enter Jonestown in Guyana to cover the Jim Jones-led mass suicide. His other stories included the assassination of President John Kennedy, the Elian Gonzalez custody dispute and a who’s who of newsmakers from throughout the final decades of the 20th century. He died in 2005.
James Polk, BA’64
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A native of Oaktown Ind., Polk received the Raymond Clapper award twice as best reporter in Washington and won the Sigma Delta Chi national reporting award. In his work for NBC News from 1975 to 1992, he covered many of major national or international stories of misdeed, fraud, extortion, espionage, terrorism or corruption.
In 1992, he joined CNN, where he is a senior documentary producer. He helped manage the network’s extended coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing, for which CNN won an Emmy in 1996. His documentary on the subject won a National Headliner award. He also contributed to coverage of the World Trade Center bombings in 1993 and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He continues to report, write and produce for the network.
Nelson Poynter, BA’24, LLD’76
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A native of Sullivan, Ind., he was committed to carrying on his philosophy of independent journalism to new generations of journalists and founded the Modern Media Institute, which became the Poynter Institute. He founded and endowed the Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions at IU, and he co-chaired the 1974 fund drive for the renovation of Ernie Pyle Hall. In 1958, he received IU’s Distinguished Alumni Service Award. He died in 1978.
Ernie Pyle, ‘23, DHL’44
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In 1935, he launched a series of more than 2,000 columns about his travels across the United States, Canada and Latin America with his wife.
But it was his war columns — read by millions of Americans — that ensured his legacy in journalism and American history. In April 1945, a few months before the end of World War II, Pyle was killed while reporting in the Pacific theater on a small island near Okinawa.
John E. Stempel, BA’23
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Under his leadership, IU became one of the first accredited journalism education programs in the nation. He increased the number of faculty and broadened the scope of studies available to students. He hired the program¹s first broadcast professor and established the doctoral program in 1963. He also created the High School Journalism Institute.
Paul Tash, BA’76
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He oversaw the development of the successful online enterprises TampaBay.com and PolitiFact.com. PolitiFact.com is known nationally for examining the truthfulness of political statements and campaign promises. It was awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.
He also serves on the boards of the Pulitzer Prizes, the Associated Press and the Newspaper Association of America.
More:
- See a press release from the IU News Room, with high resolution photos.
- Learn more about 100 years of journalism at IU.
