David Stolberg

Information on the nomination procedure for SEJ's 2012 David Stolberg Meritorious Service Award will be posted here soon. Please check back.

This annual award honors exceptional volunteer work by an SEJ member. It was created by the SEJ board in 1998 and named in honor of SEJ founder David Stolberg.

Much of SEJ's best work is accomplished by member-volunteers: tour and panel organizers for the conference, awards program leaders, contributors to SEJournal, SEJ-talk and www.sej.org, freedom-of-information watchdogs, mentors, and leaders in diversity outreach. Volunteers define the heart and soul of SEJ, and they expand the group's reach and significance in ways that are not easily measured.

David Stolberg had a 38-year career with Scripps Howard that included duties for the Scripps Howard Foundation's annual Meeman Awards for excellence in environmental reporting. Stolberg always believed in "the value of networking, of the subliminal training that comes from an association with one's peers." In the 1980s, when Stolberg was assistant general editorial manager of Scripps Howard, he came up with the SEJ idea and kept suggesting it to Meeman winners until he found one who was willing to put in the volunteer time to organize with other journalists and make something happen. That person was SEJ's founding president, Jim Detjen.

Stolberg died May 24, 2011 at age 83.

Past winners include:

2011 — Chuck Quirmbach
2010 — Elizabeth Bluemink
2009 — Roger Witherspoon
2008 — Margie Kriz
2007 — Mike Dunne
2006 — Dale Willman
2005 — Denny Wilkins
2004 — Ken Ward Jr.
2003 — Orna Izakson and Dawn Stover
2002 — Michael Rivlin
2001 — Russell Clemings
2000 — Paul MacLennan
1999 — Randall Edwards