These items came up during the business session of the meeting:
PAST CHAPTER PRESIDENT (1996-97) AND SDX FOUNDATION BOARD MEMBER DR. LEE THORNTON: Board members reflected on the journalism contributions and collegial fellowship of fellow board member Dr. Lee Thornton, the sudden news of whose death in late September was a jolt to many who were not aware that she had been ill. She had pancreatic cancer.
She was being inducted posthumously into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame in a ceremony Jan. 16 at the Newseum in Washington. It also was noted that she bequeathed $250,000 to set up a fellowship fund to help students working on their dissertations at the University of Maryland, were she was professor emerita. A memorial service and reception at Memorial Chapel on the University of Maryland campus Oct. 24 celebrated her life and distinguished career.
Long-time SDX Foundation of Washington President Reginald Stuart noted: “In our nearly 20 years of service on the foundation board, I learned a lot from Lee — wisdom, style and substance. No job was too small for her. No pitch to give was refused. No request to forgive was denied. She embraced us a family, warts and all. Who could ask for more? She will be missed.”
[An example of Lee’s “style”: She noted that the chapter’s annual Hall of Fame induction during the Dateline Awards banquet held annually in June, while adorned by the sheer impressiveness of the personalities being inducted each year, still lacked some tangible glitz. She recommended that a physical token be given along with induction, and upon approval by the chapter board, selected the engraved obelisks that have been awarded to each Hall of Famer upon official acceptance of the honor over the past eight or so years. It’s a tradition that appears likely to continue. Be sure to help congratulate the 2014 Hall of Fame class when they receive theirs June 10 at the National Press Club. It’s not too early to reserve the date! Details on the dinner to come in the next issue of Dateline.]
SCHOLARSHIP FUND DONATIONS: Stuart noted that the Gridiron Club had been approached to repeat its generous 2013 donation to the foundation’s undergraduate journalism scholarship fund, renewing a long relationship with SDX fostered by Gridiron members who also had served as officers of the chapter many years ago.
Also, the Kiplinger Foundation will again match contributions to the Foundation on a one-to-one basis up to $10,000. He asked board members to contribute in order to receive these matching funds. [In an update: Gridiron voted in December to continue its renewed partnership with the SDX Foundation of Washington in providing funding for journalism scholarships to undergraduates at D.C.-area colleges and universities. As well, as a long-standing chapter policy is continued, $8.50 of each chapter member’s $25 annual dues is contributed to the chapter’s foundation. The chapter covers operating expenses for the foundation so that all funds raised by and for the foundation go exclusively to scholarships. Anyone who would like to make a tax-deductible donation to the SDX Foundation of Washington, D.C., may contact Reginald Stuart at (301) 879-0085 or by email at rstuart5@juno.com.]
BOARD MEMBER NEWS: Board member Charles J. “Chuck” Lewis stepped down from the SDX Foundation board, effective at the end of 2013, concurrent with his retirement as senior editor in the Washington bureau of Hearst Newspapers. Lewis gave a heartfelt farewell, along with sincere assurances that the board remains in good hands with its current constituents.
Stuart, knowing that Lewis would not want to stand on ceremony, had arranged to have pieces of toast on the table, which then were hoisted by board members in Lewis’ honor. The vacancy his resignation created, along with the seat vacated by Lee Thornton's death, will be filled in the next few months, subject to approval by the chapter board.
[Lewis joked, when asked in all sincerity some days later by fellow board member Amy Fickling, whose desk in the shared suite of Hearst and McClatchy Newspapers is not far from Lewis’, that he’d spend the first year of his retirement going through his email inbox and learning how to set up a Facebook page. He also expected to still be cleaning out his desk on New Year’s Eve. Fickling was not around to see if that prediction proved out.]
Board member David Hess was in attendance, with his personal attendant. Hess, who had suffered a major stroke in May 2013, was already back to being most of his fiercely independent self, insisting on going through the buffet line to select his own lunch following the meeting, held at the National Press Club.
His attendant also was quite engaged in listening to the discussion during the meeting, asking questions about the Foundation’s mission after adjournment and before making his way to accompany Hess to the buffet. Hess had participated in the early March 2013 interviews with the foundation scholarship applicants for the current academic year, producing some of the most incisive questions that elicited the kinds of responses that made the selection process a joy, in that true devotion to journalism was uncovered. It was good to see him out and about again, as he’d been very sorry to miss the Dateline Awards banquet in June, where he was to have sat as host with the four scholarship awardees and would have stood to be recognized with other members of the chapter’s Hall of Fame in attendance. — By Amy Fickling, SDX Foundation board member and chapter Treasurer.