Nine individuals will be honored during J Day activities April 10 and 11 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The College of Journalism and Mass Communications will present eight awards and will join the Nebraska Broadcasters Association to present the Nebraska Broadcast Pioneer Award.
In an April 10 ceremony to induct students into the journalism honor society, Kappa Tau Alpha, and recognize students' success in scholarship and achievement the college will present three Dean's Awards to Omaha World-Herald executives: John Gottschalk, chairman of the Omaha World Company, Francis L. 'Frank' Partsch, a retired Omaha World-Herald editorial page director and Larry King, director of content initiatives at the Omaha World-Herald. A special award, the Thomas C. Sorensen Award for Distinguished Nebraska Journalism will be presented at the Honors Convocation that evening. Zenebe Beyene will be the featured speaker for the ceremony.
John Gottschalk joined The Omaha World-Herald in 1975. Ten years later he became the president of the company and soon thereafter, the fifth publisher in the 122-year history of the World-Herald. Today, he is chairman of the parent company that has grown from a single enterprise to an entity of 26 companies comprising 40 print titles (newspapers and shoppers), plus direct marketing, advertising and high tech companies. The company's operations are based in eight states with more than 2,500 employees.
Gottschalk has been a key figure in Omaha's $2 billion downtown growth and redevelopment project. He is chairman of the Omaha Performing Arts Society and served as chairman of the USO World Board of Governors. He now chairs the USO Foundation.
He is the recipient of the Secretary of Defense Exceptional Public Service Medal and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation National Distinguished Public Service Award and the Distinguished NebraskaLander award. In 2002 he was awarded the Silver Buffalo, the Boy Scouts highest national volunteer award. He has served as chairman of his Council and currently serves on the Boy Scouts National executive board.
Francis L. 'Frank' Partsch is the retired editorial page editor of The Omaha World-Herald, having held the post from 1982 until his retirement in 2003.
A native Nebraskan with journalism degrees from the University of Nebraska (now UNL) and The Ohio State University, Partsch joined The World-Herald in 1976 as chief of its state capital bureau in Lincoln. He spent the previous four years as editor of the Sidney Telegraph in western Nebraska. He was a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal in 1970-72. He has traveled in Europe, Africa and Asia, including a tour of duty as a sergeant with the U.S. Army in Korea in 1969-70.
He served on the board of directors of the National Conference of Editorial Writers and edited that organization's quarterly journal, The Masthead, in 2003 and 2004.
From 2005 until early 2008, he remained with The World-Herald as an assistant to the publisher. In that capacity, he participated in the development of a professional enrichment program for undergraduates to be offered by the newspaper in partnership with the UNL College of Journalism and Mass Communications.
Larry King is the director of content initiatives at The Omaha World-Herald. A native of Fonda, Iowa, he holds a journalism degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
He has worked at The World-Herald for 33 years in a variety of positions, including reporter, metropolitan editor, assistant managing editor and executive editor.
As assistant managing editor beginning in 1993, he was responsible for all local and regional reporting and oversaw a staff of a dozen assignment editors and approximately 100 reporters, editors and photographers.
Promoted to executive editor in May 1998, he was responsible for all news presented in the newspaper and oversaw a staff of about 200 journalists. During his tenure, the newspaper won numerous national journalism awards.
King was elected to the Omaha World-Herald board of directors in July 2007.
He was promoted to his current position as director of content initiatives in January 2008.
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In an April 11 ceremony at the Wick Alumni Center, the college will present three Alumni Awards of Excellence: the Outstanding Advertising Award to Terri Kuchta Tansey of Overland Park, Kan., the Outstanding Broadcasting Award to Alisa Miller of Minneapolis, Minn., and the Outstanding News-editorial Award to Kent Warneke of Norfolk, Neb. It will also present the Service to the Profession Award to Kathleen Rutledge of Garland, Neb., and the Nebraska Broadcast Pioneer Award to Ulysses Carlini Sr. of North Platte, Neb. The Kappa Tau Alpha Outstanding Service Award for the Will Owen Jones chapter will be presented to Margaret Mezoff Holman, president of Holman Consulting, Inc., a fund-raising consulting practice in New York City.
Terri Kuchta Tansey joined Bailey Lauerman, a Lincoln marketing and strategic communications firm, upon graduation from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with degrees in journalism, advertising and English.
As an account executive, Tansey has experience with a veritable Who's Who list of major corporations: Coca-Cola USA, Wal-Mart Stores, Sam's Club, Blockbuster Entertainment and McDonalds Corporation.
She went to work for Sprint Corporation in Overland Park, Kan., where she held positions in the retail marketing, business development and strategic planning units. It was in Kansas that she founded a consulting business, Second Opinion, that provided marketing expertise and strategic planning for customer-driven retail and service businesses. McClatchey Newspapers Inc., owner of the major market daily Kansas City Star, recruited Tansey to capitalize on a $200 million expansion for its integrated media subsidiaries, including KansasCity.com. The daily has the nation's fourth largest readership penetration. Tansey is responsible for the circulation sales and marketing programs for the professional, financial and education sectors.
Alisa Miller is president and CEO of Public Radio International (PRI).
Under Miller's leadership, PRI launched "Fair Game from PRI," the company's first major production in five years, and Public Action, a virtual public square where public media audiences can join or form online social networks.
Prior to becoming PRI's president and CEO, Miller led the creation of American Public Radio LLC, a partnership of PRI, Chicago Public Radio®, WGBH Radio Boston and New York Public Radio®, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of PRI Public Interactive. She continues to serve on the organization's board of governors. Miller has served as PRI's senior vice president of corporate strategy and head of PRI Content and serves as president of the governing board of Public Interactive LLC.
She came to PRI from Sesame Workshop (formerly Children's Television Workshop), where she served as assistant vice president and director of business development and strategy for Sesamestreet.com.
Miller received an MBA and MPP at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business and the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy.
Kent Warneke attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, majoring in journalism and political science and graduated with high distinction. He was a member of Farmhouse Fraternity, the Innocents Society senior honorary and Phi Beta Kappa. During college, he worked for the Daily Nebraskan, the Lincoln Journal and The Omaha World-Herald.
Warneke worked at the Omaha World-Herald from 1982 to 1987 as a reporter, copy editor and editorial writer. He was named an Outstanding Young Omahan in 1986.
He has been at the Norfolk Daily News since 1987, serving first as managing editor and currently as editor and vice president.
Warneke was honored with the Francis L. Partsch Award for Exemplary Opinion Writing for his work in the aftermath of the September 2002 US Bank shootings in Norfolk that left five people dead. He has been the recipient of the Leadership Nebraska Award by the Nebraska Press Association and earned numerous writing awards from the National Newspaper Association, Associated Press Managing Editors, Nebraska Associated Press Association and the Nebraska Press Association.
Kathleen Rutledge retired as editor of the Lincoln Journal Star in November 2007.
She started out in 1977 as a "death and weather" clerk for the paper. She covered the Statehouse beat for a dozen years, directed the editorial pages, ran the city desk and served as managing editor. She was promoted to editor in December 2001.
Rutledge earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A year of postgraduate study at the College of Journalism allowed her to get her first crucial newsroom job.
Under Rutledge's leadership, the Journal Star won recognition in reporting, narrative writing, sports coverage, photography and online journalism. She encouraged international reporting in countries such as Guatemala, India, Israel, Germany and Afghanistan.
In 1999, Rutledge started a readers council that advised the staff on covering race, ethnicity and culture. She was instrumental in the recruitment and development of minority and women journalists.
Rutledge served on a nominating jury for the Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism in 2003 and 2004.
Ulysses Carlini began his television career in the production department at WEHT-TV, Henderson, Ky., in 1953. His responsibilities included announcing, writing, sales and production. He hosted his own kids program, "Peppo the Clown" in a live weekly hourlong children's program on Saturday morning.
In 1959 he moved to Evansville, Ind., at WTVW-TV as program director. He continued to entertain kids with the creation of the "Fire Chief Andy," another children's program.
In 1968 he moved to North Platte, Neb., to assume the position of vice president/general manager of KNOP-TV. He took a fledging, struggling television station and propelled it into a prominent, respected and trusted source for entertainment, news and information.
Carlini was instrumental in obtaining a license for a second station in North Platte, KIIT-TV, a low power VHF station, which signed on in August 1995.
He served the Nebraska Broadcasters Association as board member in the 1970s and has a long history of being involved as a community leader in North Platte.
A graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Margaret Mezoff Holman parlayed her J school broadcasting degree into a position behind the cameras at the Nebraska Educational Television Network. Then in 1976, she left Nebraska and became the chief fundraiser at a local hospital in Monterey, Calif. In 1981, Holman traded the West Coast for the East. In New York City, Holman held fundraising roles at New York University, Barnard College, CARE, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the ASPCA. She founded Holman Consulting Inc. in 1991.
In addition to serving clients and presenting seminars in the United States and Europe, Holman has published two books on fundraising, is president of the Planned Giving Group of Greater New York and is an adjunct instructor at NYU.
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In an April 11 ceremony at Harold and Marian Andersen Hall, the College of Journalism and Mass Communications will dedicate Holman Plaza, the renovated area along Centennial Mall. The plaza was funded by a donation from Richard and Margaret Holman of New York City. The plaza provides an area for people to gather and drink coffee, read the paper or chat with friends.
Dick Holman is a 1969 graduate. He joined the Lincoln Star where he had interned in college. Margaret Mezoff Holman is a 1973 graduate of the broadcast journalism program and was a part-time employee in the UNL public relations department.
In 1976, Dick became a reporter and eventual city editor at the Monterey Peninsula Herald. In 1981, he joined Time Inc. in New York City. He moved to The Wall Street Journal in 1983, first as a copy editor, then reporter and columnist. He went from writing about Wall Street to join investment bank Morgan Stanley, and more than two years ago, moved to HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., a unit of London-based HSBC Holdings, one of the world's largest banks when measured by assets and market capitalization.
Margaret M. Holman has more than 30 years of fundraising and fund-raising management experience in the nonprofit sector. She runs her own successful fundraising consulting practice in New York City.