Summer 2001

Communications professor receives Lifetime Achievement Award from Press Club of New Orleans

Larry Lorenz, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Communications since 1981, received the 2001 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Press Club of New Orleans. Lorenz accepted the award and well-earned praises at the Press Club's annual Journalism Awards Competition ceremony on May 26.

In making the presentation, the Press Club honored Lorenz's nearly 40 years of professional achievements. He is the only teaching professional to be recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award in the organization's history. In 1962, fresh out of the army and armed with bachelor's degree in English from Marquette University, Lorenz joined the Chicago offices of United Press International's National Broadcast Service. He was on the desk at UPI the day President Kennedy was fatally shot. He also wrote broadcast reports on the 1962 Cuban missile crisis and the civil rights movement. After taking some time off from his reporting duties to receive a master's degree and a doctorate in journalism from Southern Illinois, he returned to UPI to cover the now infamous Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

He was member of the journalism faculty at Marquette University from 1968 to 1980, while continuing to work part-time as radio stringer and newsreader. In addition to his teaching duties at Loyola, Lorenz has been moderator of WYES-TV's journalists' roundtable "Informed Sources," since 1987. He has served as president of the Press Club of New Orleans from 1984 to 1985, and he was instrumental in the organization of an annual high school journalism competition cosponsored by the Press Club and Loyola's Department of Communications. The Tom Bell Silver Scribe Competition is held each year in memory of Lorenz's former colleague, the late journalism professor, Tom Bell.

Lorenz uses this honor to reflect on his career. "I could not be more pleased, and I'm especially honored because this group of professional journalists chose to give the award to a journalism educator. At the same time, I think my selection is recognition of my having continued to be at least a part-time journalist, in radio and television, from the time I began university teaching. From the beginning, I thought it was important for me to try to keep my hand in the profession, and my experience over these last nearly 35 years has convinced me that was sound.

"Journalism educators serve their students best when they can take the newsroom into the classroom. Those who understand what we are trying to do know that professional work can be as valuable as research in informing our teaching."

The Press Club ceremony recognizes excellence in broadcast journalists and public relations professionals, with awards given in 45 categories.