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Fred Knubel, Director of Public Information
For Use Upon Receipt: May 13, 1996

Bok Elected Chair of Pulitzer Prize Board

Sissela Bok, the writer and philosopher, has been elected chairman of the Pulitzer Prize Board, and Andrew Barnes, editor, president and chief executive officer of the St. Petersburg Times, has been elected a member of the board.

The announcements were made today by President George Rupp of Columbia University, which awards the annual prizes on the board's recommendation. Members serve a maximum of nine years; a chairman is elected annually.

Dr. Rupp also announced the board's decision to increase the amount awarded to Pulitzer Prize winners in 20 categories of journalism, letters, drama and music from $3,000 to $5,000 beginning next year. A gold medal is awarded in the Public Service category in journalism.

Dr. Bok succeeds Peter R. Kann, chairman and chief executive officer of Dow Jones & Company, Inc., who is retiring from the board.

Widely known for her writings on topics in bioethics, applied ethics, biography and autobiography, and public affairs, Dr. Bok's most recent book is Common Values, (1995). Other books include Lying: Moral Choice in Private and Public Life (1978), Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation (1982), A Strategy for Peace: Human Values and the Threat of War (1989), and Alva Myrdal: A Daughter's Memoir (1991). She is co-editor of The Dilemmas of Euthanasia (1975) with John Behnke and Ethics Teaching in Higher Education (1980) with Daniel Callahan. She is completing a book on media violence.

Born in Sweden and educated in Switzerland, France and the United States, Dr. Bok is a graduate of George Washington University and received the Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard University. Formerly professor of philosophy at Brandeis University, she is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies.

Mr. Barnes began his professional career on the Providence (R.I.) Journal. After serving in the U.S. Army for two years, he joined The Washington Post in 1965 and during the next eight years rose from reporter to deputy metropolitan editor before assuming charge of The Post's education bureau. He was an Alicia Patterson Fellow in 1969-70, traveling in Europe and Africa to study urban change. In 1973 he joined the St. Petersburg Times as assistant managing editor and metropolitan editor and was promoted to managing editor in 1976. He was named editor and president in 1984. In 1988 he succeeded Gene Patterson as chief executive of the Times Publishing Company and chairman of The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

He is a member of the board of directors of the American Committee of the International Press Institute, the Board of Governors of the Newspaper Association of America, and the Independent Newspapers Inc. and is past chairman of the American Society of Newspaper Editors Ethics Committee. A native of New York City, he graduated from Harvard University.

The other members of the Pulitzer Prize Board are: President Rupp, Joan Konner, dean, Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University (ex-officio); Louis D. Boccardi, president and chief executive officer, the Associated Press; John S. Carroll, editor and senior vice president, The Baltimore Sun; John L. Dotson, Jr., president and publisher, Akron Beacon Journal; Jack Fuller, president and publisher, Chicago Tribune; William B. Ketter, editor and vice president, The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, Mass.; Geneva Overholser, ombudsman, The Washington Post; Rena Pederson, vice president/editorial page editor, The Dallas Morning News; James V. Risser, director, John S. Knight Fellowships, Stanford University; Sandra Mims Rowe, editor, The Oregonian; Walter Rugaber, president and publisher, Roanoke (Va.) Times; William Safire, columnist, The New York Times; Edward Seaton, editor in chief, Manhattan (Kan.) Mercury; Helen Vendler, Porter University professor, Harvard University; Marilyn Yarbrough, associate provost and professor of law, University of North Carolina, and Seymour Topping, administrator of the Prizes.

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