Three named to Hall of Fame
Three professional journalists — a former Kansas State University educator, a former Associated Press bureau chief and long-time Manhattan newspaper publisher — were inducted into the Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame Friday night at the annual meeting of the Kansas Press Association.
The meeting at Topeka's Capitol Plaza Hotel also included recognition for reporters and editors for community service, investigative reporting and career accomplishments.
Those named to the Hall of Fame included:
• Bill Brown, a former editor and publisher in Garden City who went on to teach journalism at Kansas State University.
• Edward Seaton, editor in chief of the Manhattan Mercury and long-time leader of the Inter American Press Association's press freedom efforts in Latin America.
• Paul Stevens, former AP writer, bureau chief and regional vice president.
Brown was editor and publisher in Garden City during the late 1950s and early 1960s and directed coverage of the murders of four members of the Herb Clutter family in nearby Holcomb in 1959.
Later, he taught at K-State for more than 10 years, and his students still affectionately remember "Mr. Brown" as the instructor who sparked their interest in a reporting career.
Seaton, publisher in Manhattan since 1969, has served as chairman of the Landon Lecture Series, named for the former governor and 1936 Republican presidential nominee, Alf Landon, which brings major national and world leaders to K-State each year.
Stevens began his AP career in 1973 in Albany, N.Y., transferred to St. Louis a year later and then to Wichita in 1976. He became Albuquerque bureau chief in 1979, but his goal was to return to Kansas City, where he was named chief of bureau in 1984.
While in Wichita, he covered the first of the BTK killings, a sniper attack from the 26th floor of a downtown hotel and demonstrations of the American Agricultural Movement.
He retired as vice president/Central Region but continues to communicate about AP with a large list of followers.
You can read expanded stories about the inductees by going to one of the following:
http://kspress.com/636/brown-bill
http://kspress.com/635/seaton-edward-l
http://kspress.com/637/stevens-paul
Other awards presented included:
• Elon Torrence, former AP reporter in Topeka, who received the Gaston Outstanding Mentor Award for excellence as a reporter and his decades spent training new reporters for the news service.
• Bob Greer, editor of the Protection Press, recipient of the Clyde M. Reed Jr. Master Editor Award. Greer started the newspaper in 1986 after a long career writing for newspapers including the Garden City Telegram.
• Judy Thomas, reporter for the Kansas City Star, who received the Victor Murdock Award for her investigative stories thatshowed how leaders of a union based in Kansas City, Kan., gave high-paying jobs to family members, and received million of dollars in pay and perks as union membership declined, and as many members struggled to find work.
• The Hutchinson News staff, recipient of the Boyd Community Service Award for its journalism mentorship program for area high school students.
The KPA also unveiled a new video, "What We Do Still Matters," as the association marked its 150th anniversary. To view it, go here: http://kspress.com/649/what-we-do-still-matters-video
The convention continues through Saturday night with the Awards of Excellence presentation.