Who is eligible to be nominated?
Anyone who has worked at a member paper and who demonstrated particular and extraordinary dedication to their duties and to the furtherance of community newspapers or the New England Press Association. They may be drawn from editorial, advertising, production, circulation or any other department.

Please keep submissions to 200 words or less. Members may nominate more than one person. All nominations must be postmarked no later than November 30 to be considered for induction at the following year's annual NEPA Convention. Send a nomination on your letterhead and be sure to include the following:

• nominee's name
• list of accomplishments
• reason they deserve the honor
• their present status with your organization
• the name and telephone number of a contact person.

Nominations should be sent to:
NEPA Hall of Fame Committee
c/o The New England Press Association
360 Huntington Avenue, 428 CP
Boston, MA 02115

Alan L. Baker
The Ellsworth American.
A native of Orrington, Maine, Mr. Baker came to newspapers via a circuitous route: prior to working at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, he was in advertising and sales for General Electric. He returned to his native state in 1979 and formed National Media Services, a coop advertising clearing house. He also served a term in the Maine Legislature. In 1986, Mr. Baker joined Russell Wiggins at the Ellsworth American. The paper prospered under his guidance expanding its operations and modernizing its printing plant. He oversaw a rapid series of additions to the press capacity as well as the computerization of key operations including editorial, production, and in the business office. In the fall of 2001, Mr. Baker launched the Mount Desert Islander a weekly in Bar Harbor, Maine. Mr. Baker has been a strong supporter of Right-to-Know laws in Maine and has not hesitated to back up the paper’s insistence on openness with funds when it has been necessary to sue government officials eager to keep the public’s work secret.

Robert Bissonnette
York County Coast Star
For 41 years pressman Robert Bissonnette of the York County (Maine) Coast Star has never failed to deliver excellence in print. His career spans the days of hot type and flatbed presses to today's multi-unit, full-color, offset web behemoths. He has mastered new technologies at every turn "while keeping the old clunkers up and running." As recently as last fall judges in the Maine Press Association better newspaper contest noted the paper's high-quality color reproduction in awarding the Coast Star first place in General Excellence.

David Brickman
The Homesteader
David Brickman's career spans 60 years as a journalist, editor and publisher. He is the author of the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law, a founder and past president of the New England Society of Newspaper Editors, an officer of the Massachusetts Newspaper Publisher's Association and past president of Sigma Delta Chi. For years he was a panelist on the WBZ-TV program "Starring the Editors," along with Irwin Canham, editor of the Christian Science Monitor.

Alexander Bacon Brook
York County Coast Star
On a rain-drenched night in March 1958, Alexander Bacon Brook came to Kennebunk, Maine, with a few thousand dollars in his pocket to purchase a small-town, four-page chat sheet. During the ensuing 20 years he built the publication into a major journalistic force, often running a half dozen sections and serving 14 diverse towns. Along the way he or his paper won just about every journalism award possible. He established a tradition of community service and excellence in journalism that continues at that paper today.

Judith Brown
The Herald
Publisher emeritus of The Herald (New Britain, Conn.), Judith W. Brown began her career at the paper as a cub reporter after graduating from Mount Holyoke College. The third woman and third generation to lead the paper in its 119 years, she became editor in 1969 and publisher in 1975. She is presently serving on the board of Associated Press and was the first woman elected to the board of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. She is a past NEPA president as well as past president of numerous state and regional associations. A founder of the NENA Family Newspaper program she received a Yankee Quill Award from the New England Society of Newspaper Editors in 1979 for outstanding contributions to journalism.

Ann Burghardt
Jacob Burghardt
Granite Publishing
Anne and Jacob Burghardt operated Independent Granite Publishing with includes the Granite State News in Wolfeboro and the Carroll County Independent in Center Ossipee, New Hampshire for 35 years. They retired in 1997. Originally only intending to "give it a year or two," when taking over after the death of Ann's father, Parker Merrow, the couple soon found themselves deeply enmeshed in community journalism. From the start they dedicated themselves to publishing quality newspapers. At the center of their philosophy was the admonition to "do it quickly but do it right." Reporters under their guidance learned to tell both sides of the story, write well and concisely, and to remember who their audience was. No facts were left untold but there was always to be a sensitivity in the telling.

David Cutler
Stonebridge/Salmon Press
David Cutler has devoted 38 years as an owner, publisher, editor and reporter to improving small community newspapers and mentoring young journalists throughout New England and beyond. Cutler began his career in 1965 as a reporter for the Patriot Ledger. He founded Mariner Newspapers in 1972 after serving three years in Vietnam, including one year as a highly decorated platoon commander. Over the next two decades, Cutler transformed a single, paid, one-town weekly into a multi-million dollar, 15-town weekly newspaper group. After rescuing the financially strapped Worcester County Newspapers and rebuilding while serving as editor in chief and publisher. In 1999, Cutler helped formed Salmon Press by acquiring five central New Hampshire weeklies. Based in Meredith, N.H., Salmon Press has grown to nine publications during Cutler's ownership. In his spare time, Cutler enjoys fishing, chess, reading and history.

Nicholas Daniloff
Northeast University
A 30-year veteran of national media, Nicholas Daniloff is the director of the Northeastern University School of Journalism and a member of the NEPA board. The author of two books, "The Kremlin and the Cosmos," published in 1972, and "Two Lives, One Russia," published in 1988, Mr. Daniloff served as Washington, D.C., and Moscow correspondent for UPI and U.S. News and World Reports. While in Moscow in 1986 he was arrested by the KGB and indicted on fabricated espionage charges. He came to Northeastern in 1988 and was named director of the journalism school in 1992. Along with teaching ethics and graduate and undergraduate print journalism courses, Professor Daniloff works closely with the NEPA board concerning scholarships, internships and a summer camp for student journalists.

Ed DeCourcy
Newport Argus Champion
According to one scribe with first hand knowledge, Ed DeCourcy came to New Hampshire after leaving the Milford (Connecticut) Citizen - his first stop after the New York Times. In New Hampshire he loved the ambience which included getting up at 5 a.m. to deliver the papers. A staunch defender of civil liberties this former NEPA president has won every editorial award there is to win and then won them all over again. Under his guidance the Argus Champion became known as the "conscience of the Sugar River Valley and the Monadnock Region." After retiring as editor he continued to write his regular column well into his 80's. A mentor to many young journalists, DeCourcy is described as "a deep thinker, a thoroughly ethical journalist, a role model for young reporters and a delightful human being."

Paul Dietterle, Jr.
Sanford News
The late Paul Dietterle, Jr., left the family farm in 1945 at age 20 to begin his 48-year career in community newspapers. After a stint at papers in Pennsylvania, where he worked as a court reporter, sports writer and editor, he came to New Hampshire to work for the Loeb Newspapers in the early 1950s. In 1975, with the help of his family, he established his first newspaper, the Tri-town Transcript in Durham New Hampshire. He would go on to found the Sanford News in Maine in 1980 and also publish a state-wide tourist paper in New Hampshire. The news was started up after two papers in the town went bust leaving a news void. He liked to say that his philosophy included bringing good journalism to the "forgotten" communities. Dietterle was so dedicated that even on the day he had a stroke he went to work before going to the hospital. Although the Sanford News is now owned by the Foster Family, publishers of Foster's Daily Democrat, Dietterle's legacy continues with the Sanford News now edited by his eldest son Paul "Buzz" Dietterle.

William P. Dole
Cambridge Chronicle
William P. Dole, of Osterville and Boston, Massachusetts, has long been part of the New England Press Association family. He served on the Board of Directors during the 1960s when he lent his strong, supportive voice to furthering the goals of the organization. Mr. Dole was among the handful of newspaper leaders from around the region who stepped forward to lend not just moral, but financial, support to NEPA when the association fell on hard times. Mr. Dole, a graduate of Harvard University, began his career with the family's paper, the Cambridge Chronicle, which was a member of the New England Weekly Publisher's Association. When his father died prematurely, Mr. Dole, then only 23 years old, took the reins. As the operation grew and flourished under his leadership, new media products were developed. Mr. Dole sold the publications in 1991. He served as President of Accredited Home Newspapers of America. As his nomination stated, "he developed in his own right into a successful publisher and industry leader."

John Donoghue
Burlington Free Press
A 20th century renaissance man, the late John D. Donoghue enjoyed an illustrious journalism and teaching career that spanned 50 years. He was music and arts critic at the Burlington (Vermont) Free Press for 35 years. A former NEPA board member, he was executive editor of the Vermont Catholic Tribune until he retired in 1974. He hosted a Vermont Public Television public affairs show, "Cracker Barrel," and taught journalism at St. Michael's College. Before coming to Vermont he worked for Springfield, Mass., newspapers and was a highly respected editor of Stars and Stripes. The Vermont Press Association, of which he was an honorary lifetime member, dedicated its headquarters to Mr. Donoghue. A top award is given annually in his name.

Michael Donoghue
St. Michael's College
A part-time journalism professor for the past 15 years, Mr. Donoghue won high praise and recommendation from his colleagues at St. Michael's, where he teaches "Media Law and Ethics," "Advanced Reporting" and "Mass Communication and Society." A full-time journalist, writer and editor with the Burlington Free Press, Mr. Donoghue has championed numerous open meeting causes and been mentor to dozens of interns and student journalists. His devotion to the craft and assisting up-and-coming journalists continues the tradition of service established by his father, noted previously. In addition to being a longtime member of the NEPA board, he has also been a key player in the Vermont Press Association.

John Drysdale
The Herald of Randolph
The late John Drysdale of the Herald of Randolph Vermont knew he could not let Sen. Joseph McCarthy's broad brush of allegations of communists living in the White River Valley go unchallenged. The weekly publisher challenged the large dailies to come to Orange County to see first hand if it was truly a hotbed of communism. The claims were quickly discredited and Drysdale well ahead of the curve on the position that Sen. McCarthy had to go. Drysdale began his career by volunteering at the Springfield Daily, in Massachusetts. He eventually got a staff reporter's job and went on to work for dailies in Boston before buying his own weekly The White River Herald in 1945. He quickly embraced modern production methods and filled the pages with heartfelt community features such as pictures of babies on their first birthdays and photos of graduating seniors from five schools. He was publisher for 26 years and won numerous awards and citations for excellence. He sold the paper, which had become the Herald of Randolph, to his son Dickey Drysdale in 1971.

Robert Estabrook
Lakeville Journal
The career of Robert Estabrook, 81, ranges from the summer resort weekly he started in northern Michigan to The Washington Post, where he wrote editorials, was editorial page editor and served as a foreign correspondent based in London. He and his wife, Mary Lou, purchased the Lakeville Journal in Northwestern Connecticut in 1970. Although he has since sold the paper, he continues to write a weekly column. Mr. Estabrook has been a Pulitzer Prize juror, and under his guidance the Journal won a John Peter Zenger Award.

James D. Ewing
The Keene Sentinel
From 1954 until January, 1993, Mr. Ewing was the publisher of The Keene Sentinel, an award-winning daily newspaper serving southwestern New Hampshire in the Monadnock region. Mr. Ewing, who died in 2002, was a believer in education. In Keene, he directed his news staff to report on developments in the educational arena. Sentinel editorials during his Sentinel tenure and afterwards supported innovations in -- and adequate funding of – public education. Further, during his retirement, Mr. Ewing helped launch the International Center for Journalists, a Washington-based non-profit training enterprise that has helped build journalism skills among 12,000 journalists from close to 175 countries. At The Sentinel, he also emphasized to his news staff the importance of relating events abroad to the Monadnock region, whether the events concerned business, education, military conflicts or advances in science. His interest was based partly on the conviction that the world was shrinking, and that events in places as far away as Africa and Asia had a bearing on what was going on in the United States, and vice versa.

Katherine Fanning
The Christian Science Monitor
The late Katherine W. Fanning had a long and varied career in journalism - from serving as Editor of the Christian Science Monitor beginning in 1983 to eventually serving on the board of directors of the Boston Globe. She and second husband Larry Fanning purchased the Anchorage Daily News in 1967. Under her leadership the paper won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 1976 for a 15-part series on the Teamsters Union. During her tenure at the Monitor circulation rose from 150,000 to 170,000. She was the first woman elected president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. She, with others, resigned from the Monitor in 1988 to protest staff cuts brought about by budget restructuring.

Winifred B. French
The Quoddy Tides
Winifred B. French founded the Quoddy Tides in the nation's easternmost city, Eastport, Maine, in 1968, to fill a void in the community. There had not been a newspaper there in 15 years. She served as the editor and publisher for 26 years, turning the paper into a forum for people in more than 15 communities she served on both sides of the US/Canadian border. Along the way, Winnie, as she liked to be called, faced some unusual challenges. News copy was sent by fishing boat through treacherous Cobscook Bay waters, which include the world's second largest whirlpool, to an island and back for typesetting. After laying out the paper she would drive more than 200 miles, round trip, to get the paper to the printer and back. She always like to say that the paper had to be out on time "as regular as the tides." Under her guidance, the Tides contained the perfect mix of local news and balanced coverage of controversial issues, with a strong maritime flavor. Even in her later years, Winnie still dedicated herself to improving the craft. She attended many American Press Institute seminars in Reston, Virginia, where she made friends and contacts with editors from around the country. Winnie French, who was named Maine's Journalist of the Year in 1979, retired in 1994 and died the next year. Her son continues to operate the paper today.

Bernard (Barney) Gallagher
The Eagle-Tribune and Haverhill Gazette
Barney Gallagher is the elder statesman of Haverhill newspapering, still contributing to both the daily and weekly papers at the age of 80. He started out as a high school correspondent in 1935, served as an Air Force photographer and writer in World War II, came back to become a reporter, photographer and eventually managing editor of The Gazette before moving over to The Eagle-Tribune - always covering the city he loved. Barney has received numerous community awards and helped lead an effort that won Haverhill the coveted honor of All America City for 1979.

Barney is known for showing up at accident scenes at the same time as firefighters and police. Over 68 years in this business, he has charmed thousands with his smile and enthusiasm, been a rock of integrity and never given less than 200 percent. He currently edits the Gazette's signature Lamplighter column, a weekly compendium of tidbits that most readers of the 182-year-old paper turn to first. In the Sunday Eagle-Tribune, he also writes a column appropriately named "My Haverhill'' in which he explores issues past and present.

Ted Gay, Jr.
Taunton Daily Gazette
Now editor emeritus, Edgar A. (Ted) Gay Jr., began working at the Taunton Daily Gazette in 1950 covering courts, police and politics. He was named the paper's first managing editor in 1968. Previously, he worked as a boy in the composing room of the Middleboro Gazette. Mr. Gay continues to write editorials and two weekly columns, one of which, "Saturday Notebook," has appeared continuously since 1955. He is active in a number of charitable and civic causes.

David D. Gearhart
Wilton Bulletin
Throughout his 30-year career as editor of the Wilton (Conn.) Bulletin, the late David Gearhart strove to create a forum where even those who disagreed on issues could converse in an atmosphere of tolerance and respect. A firm believer in the positive power of community journalism, Mr. Gearhart was also active in numerous civic organizations including theater groups and Little League, where he is an announcer.

Raymond Gross
Courier Gazette
At the thrice-weekly Courier Gazette in Rockland, Maine, Raymond Gross's career included stints as reporter, editor and publisher. His hometown approach to community journalism earned him the adoration of readers. His unswerving dedication to the highest application of journalistic principles earned him the respect of his colleagues and competitors. In addition to numerous civic organizations which benefited from his attention, he also spent long hours assisting the Maine Press Association and New England Press Association, of which he was president. He also served as Maine's representative on the National Newspaper Association Board of Directors.

William Hannan
The Sun Chronicle
William "Bill" Hannan, now in his 91st year and still a weekly columnist for The Sun Chronicle in Attleboro-North Andover, Mass., can boast of a newspaper career that spans 60 years, from news carrier to editor and every newsroom position in between. After World War II he started part-time at The Attleboro Sun writing feature stories and covering local sports. After stints with the Stamford (Conn.) Advocate and the Leominster (Mass.) Enterprise, he returned to Attleboro in 1969. He was later named editorial page editor at the since changed Sun Chronicle and retired in 1978 at the age of 65. He immediately began writing his popular weekly column "Remember when?" in The Sun Chronicle and has continued to do so for the past 26 years.

Ruth Haskins Bass
The Berkshire Eagle
Ruth Haskins Bass wrote her first newspaper stories at the age of 10 in the sixth grade using a ditto machine. During her career, primarily at The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, MA, her positions ranged from police reporter to sections editor to Berkshire Sampler editor and Sundat editor. She remains a weekly columnist. Her people-oriented, common-sense columns and hard-nose editing have garnered major awards from, among others, Columbia University, New England Press Association, Massachusetts Association of School Committees, American Cancer Society, Society of American Travel Writers and the New England Newspaper Association. The author of eight cookbooks and a teen career guide, she also teaches Elderhostel classes about newspapers and works extensively as a freelance travel writer and photographer.

Rudolph A. Hempe
North Kingston Standard Times
During his 30-plus years in journalism Rudi Hempe has won numerous awards from both the New England Press Association and the Rhode Island Press Association. With Southern Rhode Island newspapers for 30 years, he has also taught journalism courses at the University of Rhode Island. As mentor to innumerable young reporters and aspiring editors over the years, Hempe has instilled a strong sense of dedication and ethics in all those who have come to know him.

V. Donald Hersam, Jr.
New Canaan Advertiser
A life-long champion of the importance of community journalism, V. Donald Hersam spent 53 years at the New Canaan ( Conn.) Advertiser. He has served for 33 years as publisher. A former board member of the New England Press Association, Mr. Hersam also served on the board of the Connecticut Editorial Association and is a former director of the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

Phyllis Hughes
Memorial Press Group
Rising from a part-time front office position at a two-paper company, Phyllis Hughes has risen through the ranks to become president of a company that boasts scores of weekly papers, a vacation magazine and commercial printing plant. Along the way she worked as an advertising representative for outside sales and as classified advertising manager. A speaker and trainer with the American Press Institute in Reston, Va., she has served on the board of Suburban Newspapers of America and as president of the New England Press Association. Her civic accomplishments include being the first woman in the Plymouth Rotary Club, becoming president of that club, and being a board member on the Governor's Alliance on Drugs and Alcohol.

Vincent M. Igo
The Foxboro Reporter
Vin Igo started his newspaper career as a stringer for the old Attleboro Sun in 1939 while still in high school. He joined his hometown paper, the Foxboro Reporter, in 1947 as a sports writer and photographer, a position he continues to fill today. His weekly column has been a fixture on the sports pages for more than 50 years which represents some 2,600 installments. He has also been on the police beat for more than half a century, has photographed every type of school activity from kindergarten through graduation and never turns down a request to record a class reunion, earning him the title of "Scrapbook Filler of Foxboro." He is a past president of the Massachusetts Press Association and has a life membership in the National Press Photographers Association.

Virginia Jackson
The Spectator
Virginia, "Ginny" as she is affectionately called is the heart and soul of Hathaway Publishing. She has worked at The (Mass.) Spectator for sixty-five plus years. Ginny has seen and done it all. In the early days she made phone calls for new subscribers to the new paper in town, The Spectator. From her vast knowledge of local history as she has lived it she pens a weekly column called "Remember" that retraces the history of Somerset and Swansea. Combine this with raising a family, being a Grandmother and scout leader for too many years to count as well as a founder of the Somerset Garden Club and Somerset Historical society and you begin to have some idea of her capacity for giving. Someone is always asking Ginny for her opinion or advice. She is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to The Spectator because she has been here from the beginning. While she remembers things the way they were, she has the uncanny ability to bridge the gap to the way things are today. She has touched the lives of generations of Somerset residents and continues to do so now.

Henry E. Josten
Pictorial Gazette
At age 76 Henry Josten remains active as senior editor of the Pictorial Gazette in Old Saybrook, Conn. He came to the United States in 1930 not knowing a word of English. He has spent 60 years in the newspaper business, starting out as a copy boy and working all the way up to publisher. He is a past president of both the Connecticut and New England Press associations.

Harry J. Lally
Brooks Community Newspapers
Harry J. Lally, was the former president of Brooks Community Newspapers of Westport, Connecticut. He began his career as an account executive at the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger & Jersey Journal. He was a founding partner in Axelrad & Lally, an advertising agency in Newark, and in the Watchung Weeklies, a New Jersey newspaper chain. He was later a partner of The Advisor in Middletown, NJ. In 1970, he became general manager of the Westport (Conn.) News, which would become Brooks Community Newspapers. In 1973, Lally was named executive vice president of Brooks Community newspapers and its then three newspapers. He retired as its president in 1991. During his newspaper career, the newspapers he managed took hundreds of state and national awards. Harry Lally was a pioneer in weekly newspapers and printing facilities, owning one of the first offset presses in the United States in the early 50's. He believed in giving young journalists their start. He was a true mentor to many young journalists in his five decade career. He died at 78 on April 12, 2003.

Angelo Lynn
Emerson Lynn
Brothers Angelo and Emerson Lynn have long been staunch supporters of quality community journalism. That's not unusual for this family's fourth generation of editors. Angelo owns the Addison County Independent in Middlebury, Vermont, while Emerson owns and operates the St. Albans Daily Messenger. They jointly own the Essex Reporter in Essex Junction, Vermont. Angelo has also helped start up and been a business advisor to Seven Days, a successful alternative paper begun in Burlington, Vermont five years ago. He bought his first paper, the Yates Center News, in Kansas in 1979 after bouncing around Colorado, California and Alaska as a skier and rafting and trekking guide. Both brothers got an early exposure to community journalism at the family's paper, the Iola Register in Iola, Kansas where their dad is still editor and publisher. Their sister Susan is scheduled to take over the helm this year. The family's devotion to excellence in journalism has carried over in the brothers' devotion to the New England Press Association. Each has served many years on the board of directors and as president of the organization. In addition to running their newspapers, they are active in community affairs and serve on boards and committees for many civic and charitable organizations.

J. Warren McClure
Burlington (Vt.) Free Press
"Mac" McClure built The Burlington Free Press into one of the most respected dailies in the nation. He helped create the Journalism Department at St. Michael' s College. Mac joined the Free Press as the ad director in 1952 and became co-publisher in 1959. By 1961 he was the primary owner. McClure Newspapers eventually was bought by Gannett Co., Inc., for which Mac later served as vice president of marketing and a director for 14 years. Though it all, Mac and his wife Lois never forgot their roots and have donated more than $28 million to promote human welfare in the community and beyond. Mac, who served on boards for national newspapers associations, was recognized for innovative ways to attract subscribers and advertisers, while increasing professionalism. His ideas included proposals for tax breaks for advertising to help the economy as opposed to the often-made suggestion to tax advertising.

Gerald McLaughlin
Springfield Reporter
Described by a former staff member who went on to win a Pulitzer Prize as "a one-man school of journalism," the late Gerald McLaughlin was the New England Press Association's only two-term president, serving in 1951 and 1952. He began with the old Rutland News in 1927 and went to the Rutland Daily Herald the next year. By 1934 he was the city editor and was later promoted to managing editor. In 1949 he became chief editor for Vermont Newspaper Corp., a group of weekly papers based in Springfield. Mr. McLaughlin and his wife, Helen, were the entire staff for The Springfield Reporter, which won Best Weekly Newspaper in New England in 1950. In 1966, he became editor of the Claremont, N.H., Daily Eagle. He served as associate editor of the Vermont Catholic Tribune in from 1967 until retirement in 1969. He was president of the Vermont Press Association and the New England Associated Press Managing Editors Association. He died in 1990.

R. John Mitchell
The Times Argus
R. John Mitchell is the long-time publisher of The Times Argus in Barre, the largest afternoon daily (11,500) in Vermont. Mitchell has been a constant advocate of the public' s right to know the truth and has spent newspaper resources fighting for open courtrooms, the unsealing of court papers and the release of public records. He can often be found helping to block proposed legislation that is anti-media or anti-public access. He is one of the few publishers of a daily in New England that can claim to have worked in virtually every department of a paper. Following the 1993 death of his father, Robert W. Mitchell, a charter member of the NEPA Hall of Fame in 2000, John Mitchell also became publisher at the Rutland Herald. The two papers produce the oldest Sunday newspaper in Vermont, while the Herald is the oldest, family-owned paper publishing continuously in the same city under the same name in the nation.

Robert Mitchell
Rutland Herald
The longtime owner and publisher of the Rutland (Vt.) Herald published more than 10,000 editorials during his career. He was a strong advocate of a free and independent press, and published a book containing 300 of his editorials, bringing to life issues that faced Vermonters over 50 years. Later, he purchased the Barre Daily Times. In the mid-1970s Mr. Mitchell responded to an announcement that a competitor planned to publish a Sunday paper in a few months. He scooped them by coming out with his own, a Sunday edition of the Rutland Herald/Times Argus, one week ahead, making it the state's oldest Sunday paper.

Rocco "Rocky" Molinari
The Sun Chronicle
Rocco “Rocky” Molinari joined The Attleboro Sun in 1954 after a stint of military service during the Korean War. Those were hot-type days, and Rocky was a machinist whose job was to keep eight Linotypes running. As the newspaper progressed to cold type, he was introduced to photo typesetting, and it wasn’t long before he was pounding out ads on the Compugraphic and Harris ad setters. As times changed so did Rocky, adapting to the new technology as it came along. In 1986, at the age of 66, Rocky retired. Sort of. He never left. Rocky worked part-time for 16 years, finally retiring for good in 2002 because his failing eyesight wouldn’t allow him to drive to work. At the age of 84, Rocky today can brag of an unbroken line of 48 years of service to The Attleboro Sun and The Sun Chronicle, to a career helping to produce award-winning newspapers that spans generations and whole eras of technology.

John Nash
Westfield Evening Citizen
Now retired, John Nash has long been regarded as an astute businessman and respected manager. He started out by buying the Ridgefield (Connecticut) Press with his brother Karl in 1937. Over the years he bought and sold interests in several papers including the Litchfield Enquirer, the New Milford Times and the Winstead Evening Citizen. Among the papers he started up were the Brookfield (Connecticut) Journal and the Bethel Home-News. After buying the Westfield (Massachusetts) News-Advertiser in 1971, he converted the paper to a daily. During his long and profitable career, Nash's papers won numerous awards for general excellence in New England and nationally. He was among the first publishers in New England to see the wisdom of converting to the then "untested" offset printing process.

Karl S. Nash
Ridgefield Press
Using borrowed money to purchase his hometown newspaper, the Ridgefield (Conn.) Press, Karl Nash realized his boyhood dream and eventually built a seven-paper company, where he worked as an editor and publisher for 50 years. He served as Ridgefield's town meeting moderator, was chairman of the community's 250th birthday celebration and served on the board of education for 20 years - 17 as chairman. "He was unquestionably devoted to building a better community," his nomination stated.

John C. Peterson
Shore Line Newspapers
John C. Peterson is principal of The Peterson Group, a newspaper consulting company based in Guilford, Conn., which he founded in 1995. He is the former president of Capital Cities/ABC' s New England Newspaper Group that published 75 newspapers in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. He began his newspaper career as a reporter at newspapers in Massachusetts and at The Day, of New London, Conn. He was assistant managing editor and managing editor of The Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin Company from 1973-78 before becoming executive editor and later publisher of Shore Line Newspapers in Guilford. His newspapers have won numerous regional and national awards for investigative reporting and general excellence. His professional activities include the presidencies of the New England Press Association and the Connecticut Editorial Association, as well as chairmanship of the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information. He is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Connecticut, teaching news writing and other journalism courses.

William L. Plante, Jr.
Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association
The hallmark of journalism in the United States is a free, unrestricted press that delivers important information the public might otherwise not obtain. During a newspaper career that has spanned more than a half century, Bill Plante Jr. has fought hard to preserve that ideal for newspapers in Massachusetts. Plante, executive director for the past 20 years of the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association—the chief group in Massachusetts fighting for First Amendment issues, retired on June 30, 2004. Throughout his time at the association, he challenged legislators over the rights of the press. His retirement has not in any way altered the strong views on First Amendment issues he has tried to uphold and protect throughout his career, however. He plans to stay active in the challenge to ensure that First Amendment rights are upheld.

Douglas H. Reed
The Free Press
Although the last 10 years have found him at the community-oriented newspaper he and his wife founded - the Free Press in North Attleborough, Mass. - Douglas Reed's career has taken him all over New England. He worked his way up from reporter to eventually become editor of the Daily Messenger in St. Albans, Vt. He worked also at the Keene Sentinel, helped merge the Evening Chronicle of North Attleborough and the Daily Sun of Attleboro, was executive editor of the Pawtucket Times, and spent a brief period at the Patriot Ledger in Quincy. He is a former board member of Associated Press Managing Editors of New England and is active in numerous civic groups and organizations.

Paul A. Rixon
Sun Chronicle
Paul A. Rixon is the retired publisher of the Sun Chronicle in Attleboro, Massachusetts. He was with the organization for 38 years and served as managing editor of the Attleboro Sun and publisher of the North Attleboro Chronicle - both predecessor papers of the Sun Chronicle. He became general manager of the Sun Chronicle in 1971 and publisher in 1983. In 1989 he created the paper's award-winning Sunday edition and oversaw the conversion to up-to-date production technology which contributed to the paper's many awards for news writing, photography, color reproduction, advertising and promotion. He began his 45-year career in newspapers as a sportswriter and managing editor of the St. Albans (Vermont) Daily Messenger.

Samuel E. Roberts
Lincoln County News
Sam Roberts' newspaper career began in 1950 when, fresh out of the Navy, he began working at the small country weekly in Damariscotta, Maine. He began as publisher in 1966, following his mother, Dorothy, who was the first woman to serve on the NEPA board. A past president and board member of NEPA, Mr. Roberts has also worked to improve journalism by being a board member and president of the Maine Press Association. While president of NEPA in 1986, Mr. Roberts joined with others of vision to save the organization from financial problems. Although Mr. Roberts retired in 1992, he is still active, serving as Maine state director for the National Newspaper Association.

Irving Rogers II
Eagle Tribune
Long the publisher of the Eagle Tribune in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the late Irving Rogers II was a staunch advocate of individual, family-owned newspapers during an era when corporate takeovers were the norm. Under his administration the Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize. He was known for being a technological visionary, often setting the paper up as a test site for new and cutting edge production technology.

William B. Rotch
The Cabinet Press
A founding member of the New England Weekly Press Association, a forerunner of NEPA. William B. Rotch later went on to become a president of NEPA. He also served as president of the New Hampshire Press Association. He became the sixth generation of his family to take the reins at the Cabinet Press in Milford in 1946. He did everything from writing stories and editorials to supervising production and a job printing plant. In 1989 the International Society of Newspaper Editors presented him with its Eugene Cervi Award for outstanding editorial writing. In 1993 he was given the William E. Mulligan Ward by the New Hampshire chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee "in recognition of the continued contributions to Middle East understanding." More than 60 years after he started in the business, the publisher emeritus still writes a regular bi-weekly column as well as historical features.

Richard Saltonstall
Norumbega Publishing
The late Richard Saltonstall, Jr. became one of the biggest boosters of the state's weekly newspapers when he moved there full-time in the late 1970's. In 1979 he and partner, William Patten, bought The Republican Journal and Bar Harbor Times, followed shortly by the Camden Herald. The business partners parted ways in 1981. Saltonstall died of a massive heart attack while writing an editorial for the Republican Journal. He was 44. One of Maine's leading environmentalists, he constantly pushed for natural resource protection in the state. He was the author of three books dealing with the environment: Maine Pilgrimage, Brown Out and Slow Down, and Your Environment and What You can Do About It. He grew up in Massachusetts, where he graduated from Harvard University. He started as a police beat reporter at the Seattle Times. Three years later he became a stringer for Time Magazine, moving on to become a correspondent in the magazine's San Francisco bureau in 1965. Two years later, the magazine sent him to Washington where he was a White House correspondent covering the Lyndon B. Johnson administration.

William J. Slator
Addison Independent
The late William J. Slator, affectionately known as "The Colonel," was co-publisher of the Addison (Vt.) Independent with his wife, Celine, who was NEPA's first woman president. As a board member and president of NEPA, Mr. Slator has devoted himself to furthering the goals of community journalism. His journalism career included stops in Springfield, Mass., and Nyack, N.Y., before landing back in Connecticut with the Waterbury Republican, where he was city editor for 14 years. During that time, the paper won a Pulitzer Prize for exposing corruption by officials. He was instrumental in revitalizing the Vermont Press Association after World War II. The Addison Independent has provided four NEPA presidents including the Slators, Gordon Mills in 1982 and Angelo Lynn in the early 1990s.

H. Gordon Smith
Caledonian-Record
H. Gordon Smith was the longtime president and publisher of the Caledonian-Record in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. The paper is now in the third generation of Smiths with his son Mark at the helm. Gordon Smith's father, a Boston area reporter, bought the afternoon daily when Gordon was two. You name it, Gordon Smith did it at some point for the small Northeast Kingdom paper. A longtime advocate of free enterprise as well as free speech, Mr. Smith was president of the company for 40 years and publisher from 1959 to 1982 before stepping down to be the corporation treasurer. He was a longtime advocate of free speech/press and was a real hands-on journalist. A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, Mr. Smith was a member of the former American Newspaper Publishers Association (today's NAA), the New England Daily Newspaper Association, NEPA, NENA, and the New England Advertising Bureau of which he served as secretary for several years. He died at 84, at his home in St. Johnsbury on October 30, 2001.

Paul Scudder Smith
Newtown Bee
The second generation of the family to run the Newtown (Conn.) Bee, Paul Scudder Smith served as editor and business manager of the paper from 1932 until 1972. He stayed on as consulting editor until his death in 1990. His watchword for serving his readers was an admonition to use "our best efforts in advancing the interest of this beautiful town through our columns." "His life was fairness," his nomination noted.

R. Scudder Smith
The Newtown Bee
R. Scudder Smith has served as editor and publisher of the Newtown Bee since 1973 when his father Paul retired. In that year he proposed coverage of an area of particular interest to people living in Connecticut and New England. He began providing copy on antique dealers and auctioneers and soon Antiques and the Arts Weekly was spun off. The publication is known today as the "Bible" of the antiques industry. The fourth generation of his family to run The Newtown Bee, Smith's contributions to both journalism and his community have gone far beyond what most people expect. In 1998, the Newtown Bee established a park in the center of town for the enjoyment of the public. In fact, Smith literally pitched in with shovel in hand to do many of the gardens and plantings. He has never sought recognition but rather stood firm in his belief that excellence is its own reward.

George Speers
New England Press Association
A founding member of the New England Press Association in 1950, Mr. Speers went on to become the organization's first executive director. He established NEPA's first ties to Northeastern University and was well-known for his dedication to the goals of community journalism during his 18 years at the helm. The annual Newspaper of the Year Award is given in his honor.

Jeanne Tempest
Granite State News
Jeanne Tempest, editor of the Granite State (N.H.) News in Wolfeboro, has inspired legions of young writers during her career. She has also edited the Rochester Courier and Derry News. According to her nomination, "She is the epitome of community journalism." Along with encouraging younger writers to verify and investigate, she has managed to instill in them the importance of also including as many names and faces in the paper as possible. She is a past president of NEPA, as well as the former chief of the New Hampshire Press Association.

Daniel J. Warner
The Eagle Tribune
Hailed by co-workers as "a conceptual genius" for his demand for people-centered stories, Dan Warner led the Lawrence (Mass.) Eagle Tribune to a Pulitzer Prize for News Reporting, as well as helping the Eagle Tribune to become NEPA's Newspaper of the Year for six consecutive years. He and his wife, Janet, also owned and operated a family of small weeklies in Maine. A recent past president of the New England Press Association, Mr. Warner has plans to teach journalism at Boston University.

William Wasserman
North Shore Weeklies
An honorary lifetime member of NEPA and a strident supporter in the organization's lean years, William Wasserman formed North Shore (Mass.) Weeklies, beginning with the purchase of the Amesbury News in 1958. He built North Shore Weeklies into a major force, including 12 papers with a total circulation of 160,000. He is responsible for numerous journalistic innovations during his stellar 30-year career, and was among the first to push for more diverse newsrooms. Many of the people that he inspired have risen to top posts in the region. He was also among the first to encourage stronger news content in weeklies.

James Russell Wiggins
The Ellsworth American
James Russell Wiggins' career brought him from the Rock County Star in Minnesota to the editorship of The Washington Post. A passionate advocate for the public's right to know, he helped pass the first federal Freedom of Information Act. He was director of the American Society of Newspaper Editors for several years and was that group's president in 1959-60. After retiring from the Post in 1968, he was named Ambassador to the United Nations. A year later, he moved to Maine and bought the Ellsworth American, which he has guided to an award-winning 11,000 circulation weekly. Even today, at age 96, he comes to office daily and writes poems, editorials and columns for each issue.

Selma Williams
North Shore Weeklies
Selma Williams began her New England journalism career as a reporter with the Lawrence (Mass.) Eagle Tribune. She went on to become vice president of Fox Run Press in Topsfield, editor of the Hamilton-Wenham (Mass.) Chronicle and managing editor of the Marblehead Reporter and Swampscott Reporter. Ultimately, she became editor-in-chief of the North Shore Weeklies, a group of 17 papers eventually purchased by Community Newspaper Company. She has been a tireless worker on the NEPA convention and contest committees. In 1994 she was a Knight International Press Fellow and spent six months in Ukraine helping train journalists there. She continued that work in 1996-97 as a resident advisory with IREX ProMedia, which is continuing to educate journalists and assist in the development of better journalism.

Frederick J. Wilson III
South County Newspapers
As publisher of the South County Newspapers for the past 25 years, Frederick Wilson III has served in numerous professional capacities and is a past president of the New England Press Association and of the Rhode Island Press Association. He served as a NEPA director for 17 years and as a director of the Suburban Newspapers of America for six years. He has also served for eight years as chairman of a NENA education committee. During his career he has helped start up four newspapers including the Chariho Times and the South County Independent, which won first place for general excellence last year in the NENA better newspaper contest. His papers have consistently been among the best in the country, winning numerous awards for writing, photography, design and advertising. Along with helping form the Rhode Island Newspaper Group, he has served on numerous boards and committees for community groups and charities, including the Wakefield Rotary Club, the South Kingstown Chamber of Commerce and Troop 2 in Wakefield.

NEPA
Promoting Growth and Excellence in New England Newspapers