School of Journalism and Telecommunications

Welcome / Journalism / ISC / Telecommunications / IRJCI / Internships / Alumni / Student Orgs
/ Job Opportunities / Hall of Fame / Creason Lectures / Bowling Lectures /
Lifetime Achievers
/ Contact Us


Joe Creason
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, columnist, Chicago Tribune
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


Updated Last:
April 23, 2006 9:43 PM
Nathan Stevens/nss@uky.edu