Philip Merrill College of Journalism | University of Maryland

Roberts Wins National Mentorship Award

For immediate release, June 6, 2006

COLLEGE PARK, Md.— Merrill College Professor Gene Roberts won the Richard M. Clurman Award for outstanding on-the-job mentorship, the Livingston Foundation announced today.

The award, which brings a $5,000 prize, is named for the distinguished Time journalist and former Livingston Foundation board member. It is part of the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists, a program that each year honors three journalists younger than age 35. The Clurman award recognizes that typically behind each successful younger journalist, there is an experienced veteran providing a support network.

Before joining the Merrill College faculty in 1991, Roberts spent 40 years working as a reporter and editor. He was the executive editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer for 18 years and led the staff to national prominence and 17 Pulitzer Prizes. He took a leave from teaching in 1994 to spend a few years serving as managing editor of The New York Times. He is also recipient of the National Press Club's Fourth Estate Award for Distinguished Contributions to Journalism.

The Livingston prizes are sponsored by the Mollie Parnis Livingston Foundation, chaired by Neal Hochman, Miss Parnis' nephew and successor. She established the program in 1980 to honor her son, Robert, who published the journalism review More.

Previous Clurman award winners include: Charles Peters, Washington Monthly; Gordon Manning, NBC News (retired); William F. Buckley Jr., National Review; Mary McGrory, The Washington Post; Thomas Winship, International Center for Journalists; Arthur Gelb, The New York Times; Clay Felker, The Felker Magazine Center; Eugene Patterson, St. Petersburg Times; and Jim Bellows, New York Herald Tribune.

For more information contact: Matthew C. Sheehan at 301.405.8320.