NCEW members elect officers, celebrate accomplishments.

In addition to furthering the craft of editorial writing (and ... well, having a rollicking good time doing it), NCEW conventions have business to attend to.

We elect officers, reward excellence, acknowledge dedication to the principles of editorial writing and editing and, not least of all, plan future conventions.

The 2005 convention in Portland saw to its duty regarding all of the above.

NCEW membership elected new officers. Sitting officers, meanwhile, will automatically move up through the ranks next year.

J.R. Labbe of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram will serve as president; Neil Heinen of WISC-TV in Madison, Wisconsin will become vice president. Joining them as board executives will be new officers elected by members both at the convention and by absentee ballot. They include treasurer Vanessa Gallman, editorial page editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader, and secretary David Holwerk, editorial page editor of The Sacramento Bee.

Three board members also were elected--Bonnie Calhoun Williams, editorial page editor of the Anderson Independent-Mail in South Carolina; Joann Crupi, editorial page editor of the Times Union in Albany, New York; and Dick Hughes, editorial page editor of the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon.

"The year 2006 promises to be an exciting and fun year for NCEW," said Labbe. "I look forward to working with the new board members, as well as continuing to work with those who have been serving,"

Members selected Little Rock as the site of the 2008 convention, following Pittsburgh in 2006 and Kansas City in 2007.

Two win fellowships

In addition, two hard-working journalists were honored at the convention with prestigious fellowships.

Denny McAuliffe, the Native American Journalist in Residence at the University of Montana, received the 2005 Barry Bingham Sr. Fellowship on September 16 at a special presentation during lunch at the Benson Hotel. A former assistant foreign editor at The Washington Post, McAuliffe is an enrolled member of the Osage Tribe of Oklahoma. He is the first Native American to receive the Barry Bingham Fellowship and was notably honored for his career-long contributions to minority students.

At the University of Montana, McAuliffe directs Reznet at reznetnews.org, an online newspaper for and by Native American students.

The Bingham Fellowship is an annual presentation of the NCEW Foundation. The program brings to the NCEW convention an outstanding faculty member who has shown great initiative in mentoring minority college students.

Also, Kate Riley, an editorial writer with The Seattle Times, was the 2005 recipient of the Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship for Editorial Writing.

The twenty-sixth journalist to receive the award, Riley was presented with a seventy-five thousand dollar check at lunch on September 17 at the Benson Hotel. She received it from Terry Harper, director of the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation of the Society of Professional Journalists and Todd Gilman, president of the foundation.

Riley, who launched her foundation project with a trip to Columbia, South Carolina, in October, is researching the controversy surrounding the discovery of the 9,3o0year-old human remains that have come to be called "Kennewick Man" The bones have become a center of conflict among scientists, public officials, and Native American tribal leaders.

The Pulliam Fellowship awards seventy-five thousand dollars to an outstanding editorial writer to help broaden his or her journalistic horizons and knowledge of the world. It is funded by a grant from Mrs. Eugene C. Pulliam honoring the memory of her husband, one of the original members of the Society, which was founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi. The deadline for the next Pulliam fellowship is July 1. Information can be found at spj.org/fellowships_pulliam.asp.

Denton named life member

One of the final events of the convention proved to be one of the most poignant.

When John Taylor brought Tommy Denton's name to the NCEW board as the professional committee's 2005 recommendation for life membership in NCEW, it took ten seconds of discussion before a unanimous vote approved the selection.

Denton has been an unwavering source of energy and leadership throughout his association with NCEW. He served as NCEW president in 1995, and went on to lead the NCEW Foundation for two terms. His sense of humor, his straight talk, and a heart as big as his native Texas make him a magnet for members who seek his advice and value his friendship.

Tommy's work within NCEW is evident to the membership, but the encouragement and assistance he provides on a daily basis to writers in his shop--and beyond--is equally deserving recognition.