Contact: Kim Brockway For immediate release

(212) 854-2419 March 15, 1999

kkb18@columbia.edu

 

Columbia Scholastic Press Association

Receives $500,000 Gift from Former Director

 

The former director of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA), Charles R. O'Malley, has given an additional $500,000 to a fund to support its activities.

The CSPA, the school and college press organization founded in 1925 at Columbia to train young editors through seminars, critical evaluations and national competitions, is today international in scope with a membership of 2,000.

Edmund J. Sullivan, director of the association since Mr. O'Malley's retirement in 1981, said the gift would increase the Charles R. O'Malley/Columbia Scholastic Press Association Fund to more than $1.2 million. An original gift of $500,000 established the fund in December 1993. Mr. O'Malley's latest gift for the CSPA brings his total giving to $1 million.

Mr. Sullivan said the fund will be used to support award programs for student journalists as well as the association's conventions and other programs.

"Chuck O'Malley's generosity has made the difference for the CSPA in several key areas,ä said Sullivan. ãThanks to the help from the O'Malley Fund, we're able to publish a new book to aid student yearbooks, plus we'll be able to enrich the curriculum of our summer workshop. We'll also provide new opportunities for membership and awards, especially for new media.ä

The formal announcement of Mr. O'Malley's recent gift will be made on Friday, March 19 at the concluding luncheon of the association's annual convention at the Faculty House on the University's campus at Morningside Heights.

Mr. O'Malley, 84 and a 1944 graduate of Columbia College, said in making the gift: "As we approach the millennium, the CSPA is poised to meet new challenges. Its expansion to new areas of the world and to new forms of electronic media are just some of these new possibilities to help students and advisers. I hope my gift will help the CSPA to develop these future opportunities."

A native of Perry, Iowa, Mr. O'Malley was editor of his high school newspaper and business manager at Columbia of the student newspaper, The Columbia Daily Spectator. During World War II, he served in the Naval Reserve. He later became a marketing director for the Mobil Oil Company in West Africa. After returning to New York, he became vice president and general manager of a large shipping company, and for several years published a weekly international newsletter for the oil shipping trade. Later, he was vice president and eastern sales manager for a company representing national radio and television stations.

Mr. O'Malley joined CSPA as associate director in 1968 and became director in 1969.

CSPA co-sponsors a national convention for college editors each March, with College Media Advisers, Inc., as well as a weeklong summer workshop on the Columbia campus for high school student journalists and a regional conference for Northeastern school publications. More than 3,500 student editors and journalism teachers from across the country will attend more than 200 sessions at this yearâs conference from March 17-19, 1999.

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