Submit your nominees for Hall of Fame, Distinguished Service Award

The D.C. Pro chapter is seeking suggestions for the chapter’s Hall of Fame and for its Distinguished Service Award for local journalism. Honorees — who are chosen by the chapter's board of directors — will be recognized at the Dateline Awards dinner in June.

The criterion for membership in the Hall of Fame is simply this: strong journalism for at least 25 years in Washington.

The 2010 inductees were Washingtonian magazine Editor-at-Large Jack Limpert, Westwood One Radio host Jim Bohannon, former RTNDA President Emeritus Barbara Cochran and retired Newsweek Washington Bureau Chief Mel Elfin.

In 2009, the class comprised CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer, Public Broadcasting Service correspondent Gwen Ifill, U.S. News & World Report correspondent Kenneth T. Walsh and BNA editor Toby McIntosh.

Among the more than 150 others in the Hall of Fame are: Jack Anderson, Ben Bradlee, David Brinkley, David Broder, Art Buchwald, Maureen Bunyan, Ann Compton, Eleanor Clift, Sam Donaldson, Seymour Hersh, Mark Knoller, Jim Lehrer, Walter Lippmann, Peter Lisagor, Sarah McClendon, Charles McDowell, Ann McFeatters, Patrick McGrath, Mary McGrory, Roger Mudd, Robert Novak and Diane Rehm.

The Distinguished Service Award goes to an individual who has distinguished himself or herself by contributing to the development of local journalism, mentoring other journalists and/or by working in the community.

In 2010, Sue Kopen Katcef of the University of Maryland’s Phillip Merrill College of Journalism received the DSA.

Previous winners include Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy; veteran SPJ activist Bill McCloskey, retired from the AP and BellSouth; columnist Mark Shields; Student Press Law Center Executive Director Mark Goodman; former SPJ national president Reggie Stuart; retired NBC4 writer and producer Tom Simonton; journalism attorney Bob Becker; and Limpert.

You do not have to be an SPJ member to nominate someone for either award. Please email your suggestions to board member Steve Taylor at taylorsa@comcast.net.