Office of Public Information and Communications Columbia University New York, N.Y. 10027 (212) 854-5573
Gene Roberts, managing editor of The New York Times, today received the 1996 Columbia Journalism Award, the highest honor given by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
The award was presented by the school's dean, Joan Konner, at 3:30 P.M. ceremonies in the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine near the Columbia campus. The event celebrated the conferral of the master's degree in journalism on 200 students.
A former national editor at The Times, Mr. Roberts rejoined the paper as managing editor in 1994 after three years as a professor at the University of Maryland's College of Journalism and 18 as executive editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, where his staff won 17 Pulitzer Prizes. He also held executive positions with the Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc., including vice president and director, senior vice president and president.
A North Carolina native, Mr. Roberts earned the B.A. in journalism at the University of North Carolina in 1954 and later was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard. He was a reporter and editor with The Detroit Free Press, The Raleigh, N.C., News & Observer, The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot and The Goldsboro News-Argus before joining The New York Times in 1965, where until 1972 he served as chief Southern and civil rights correspondent, chief war correspondent in South Vietnam and national editor. In 1993 he won the National Press Club's Fourth Estate Award for lifetime achievement in journalism.
Previous recipients of the Columbia Journalism Award, first presented in 1971, include Katherine Graham, Tom Wolfe, Helen Thomas, Peter Arnett, Robert Maynard, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, David Laventhol and Charles Kuralt.
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