Skip to main content
Board lander photo
1981 Pulitzer Prize Board
Board lander photo caption

front row, left to right: J. Cowles, R. Wilkins, M. Sovern, J. Pulitzer, W. Raspberry, L. Hills; back row, left to right: R. Baker, E. Patterson, R. Leonard, C. Saikowski, O. Elliott, J. Hughes, H. Hays, W. Phillips, H. Gray, C. Kirkpatrick, T. Winship

Board Lander Sub Title
Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., chair; Richard T. Baker, secretary

Michael I. Sovern

Job title
president
First name
Michael I.
Last name
Sovern
Location
New York, NY

Commendatore in the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy, 1991. Recipient, Citizens Union Civic Leadership Award, 1993. Columbia Law School Medal for Excellence, 1997. Town Hall Friend of the Arts Award, 2001. Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star from Japan, 2004. Centennial Medal, American Academy in Rome, 2006. Lawrence A. Wien Prize for Social Responsibility, 2010. After two years on the faculty at the University of Minnesota Law School, joined the Columbia faculty in 1957.

Employer
Columbia University
Photo
Michael I. Sovern
Ordering weight
1

Thomas Winship

Job title
editor
First name
Thomas
Last name
Winship

(Courtesy of The New York Times)

Thomas Winship, Ex-Editor of Boston Globe, Dies at 81

By Douglas Martin

March 15, 2002

Thomas Winship, who as editor of The Boston Globe for two decades propelled the newspaper to regional leadership and national stature, in part through tireless coverage of the court-ordered school busing that split the city in the 1970's, died yesterday in Boston. He was 81 and lived in Lincoln, Mass.

He had been under care for lymphoma at Massachusetts General Hospital, said his son Laurence.

Employer
The Boston Globe
Ordering weight
1

William J. Raspberry

Job title
columnist
First name
William J.
Last name
Raspberry

(Courtesy of The Washington Post)

William Raspberry dies at 76: Washington Post columnist wrote about social issues including race, poverty

By Matt Schudel

July 17, 2012

William Raspberry, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post whose fiercely independent views illuminated conflicts concerning education, poverty, crime and race, and who was one of the first black journalists to gain a wide following in the mainstream press, died July 17 at his home in Washington. He was 76.

Employer
The Washington Post
Ordering weight
1

Richard H. Leonard

Job title
editor and senior vice president
First name
Richard H.
Last name
Leonard

(Courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Longtime Journal editor Dick Leonard dies at 92

By Meg Jones

May 18, 2014

Richard H. Leonard always knew he wanted to be a newspaperman — correction, make that editor — ever since he worked on his fifth-grade newspaper back in Ridgewood, N.J.

And he did just that.

In 1967, Leonard was named the sixth editor of The Milwaukee Journal. He served longer than any other editor in the history of the newspaper, with the exception of Lucius W. Nieman, who founded it in 1882.

Employer
The Milwaukee Journal
Ordering weight
1

Clayton Kirkpatrick

Job title
chief executive officer
First name
Clayton
Last name
Kirkpatrick
Years

(Courtesy of The New York Times)

Clayton Kirkpatrick, 89, Editor Who Changed Chicago Tribune

By Thomas J. Lucek

June 23, 2004

Clayton Kirkpatrick, a former editor of The Chicago Tribune who presided over a sweeping transformation of the newspaper's editorial approach, died Saturday at his home in Glen Ellyn, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. He was 89.

The cause was congestive heart failure, The Tribune reported yesterday.

Employer
Chicago Tribune
Ordering weight
1

Hanna H. Gray

Job title
president
First name
Hanna H.
Last name
Gray

(Courtesy of the University of Chicago)

Hanna Holborn Gray was president of the University of Chicago from July 1, 1978, through June 30, 1993.

Mrs. Gray is a historian with special interests in the history of humanism,  political and historical thought, and church history and politics in the Renaissance and the Reformation.

Employer
University of Chicago
Ordering weight
1

Osborn Elliott

Job title
dean, Graduate School of Journalism
First name
Osborn
Last name
Elliott

"When I think of Oz Elliott, I think of a person who embodies all the qualities of a good citizen—a practical man of high ideals, a courageous man who exercises self-restraint, a worldly man who loves his city." —David Dinkins, Newsweek, 09/27/08

(Article courtesy of The New York Times.)

Osborn Elliott, Father of Newsweek’s Rebirth, Dies at 83

By Michael T. Kaufman

September 28, 2008

Employer
Columbia University
Ordering weight
1