Community Programs

The Joe Creason Lecture Series

The Joe Creason Lecture Series brings an outstanding journalist to the University of Kentucky campus to meet and talk with students, and to speak before an assemblage of students, faculty and the general public.

The lecture series was made possible through a matching grant from the Bingham Enterprises Foundation of Kentucky and gifts donated by UK alumni and friends of Joe Creason.

Joe Creason

Before his death on August 14, 1974, Joe Creason had been hailed as "a crack newspaperman" who inspired trust in those about whom he wrote.

The Creason wit and humor, his friendly manner and his love for Kentucky always showed through his writings for The Courier-Journal (Louisville) and The Courier-Journal Sunday Magazine.

He was a Kentuckian -- a native of Benton ("The only town in which I was born"). A graduate of the University of Kentucky (Class of 1940) and a rabid booster of his Alma Mater, he was national president of the UK Alumni Association in 1969-70.

People who knew Joe Creason number in the thousands in every county of the state. From his column, "Joe Creason's Kentucky," in The Courier-Journal, his two books, a radio series started before his death and his speech-making, he is remembered as a man who was never too busy to enjoy people.

At the time of Joe Creason's death, an anonymous mourner left a note on the door of his Courier-Journal office. It said simply, "So long Joe -- and thanks," and was signed "Kentucky."

Creason Lecturers with affiliations at the time of their speech:

1977 James J. Kilpatrick, Washington Star, syndicated columnist
1978 No lecture given
1979 James Reston, New York Times, columnist
1980 John F. Day, CBS News, former director
1981 Thomas G. Wicker, New York Times, associate editor
1982 William Safire, New York Times, Washington Bureau
1983 Harrison E. Salisbury, New York Times, associate editor
1984 David Dick, CBS Television News, correspondent
1985 Charles McDowell, Richmond Times-Dispatch, syndicated columnist
1986 Eugene Patterson, St. Petersburg Times, Chairman & CEO
1987 John C. Quinn, USA Today, editor
1988 John Ed Pearce, Louisville Courier-Journal, columnist
1989 Charles Kuralt, CBS News, correspondent
1990 David Kindred, The National Sports Daily, columnist
1991 Bernard Shaw, CNN, anchor
1992 Helen Thomas, UPI, reporter
1993 Jim Squires, Chicago Tribune, former editor
1994 Burl Osborne, Dallas Morning News, publisher/editor
1995 Robert Mulholland, NBC, former president
1996 Geneva Overholser, Washington Post, ombudsman
1997 Michael Gartner, NBC News, former president
1998 Hodding Carter III, Knight Foundation, president & CEO
1999 Charles L. Overby, The Freedom Forum, chairman & CEO
2000 Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune, columnist
2001 Bonnie Angelo, Time Magazine, contributor
2002 Angelo B. Henderson, The Detroit News, special projects reporter
2003 Bob Edwards, National Public Radio, host of Morning Edition
2004 Earl Caldwell, New York Times, former civil rights-era reporter
2005 Leonard Downie, Jr., Washington Post, executive editor
2006 David Broder, Washington Post, columnist
2007 Molly Bingham, Journalist, Photographer, Filmmaker
2008 John Carroll, former editor, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Lexington Herald-Leader