Wednesday, November 01, 2017

Pyle award for Connie Schultz

Syndicated and former PD Pulitzer-winning columnist Connie Schultz will receive the 2018 Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

Connie won her Pulitzer in 2005 while at the PD.

Connie Schultz
The Pyle award, named for the famous World War II war correspondent who brought America stories of G.I. Joes, will be handed to Connie during the society’s June 7-10 conference in Cincinnati.

For 10 years Creators Syndicate has been distributing Connie’s columns.

Connie responded:

“Many years ago, a reader familiar with my work sent me a first-edition copy of Ernie Pyle’s book ‘Brave Men’ and Lee G. Miller’s biography ‘The Story of Ernie Pyle.’ The reader, who identified himself as an elderly man, asked that I never stop writing about the ‘regular men and women who make up this great country.’
Ernie Pyle

“Both books continue to hold a place of honor in my personal library, but since learning of this award, they feel like whispers from the grave of a great journalist who died before I was born.
"Ernie Pyle knew there is no such thing as an ordinary person, and it has been my privilege to illustrate that singular truth for nearly 40 years, one story at a time. I hope to do so as long as I draw a breath.”

Sherrod Brown, a U.S. Senator from Ohio, is married to Connie, who also is a Professional in Residence at Kent State’s Journalism and Mass Media School. They have four children and five grandchildren and live in Cleveland.

Since 1993 Pyle winners have included Dave Barry, Art Buchwald, Roger Ebert, Judith “Miss Manners” Martin and Andy Rooney.

Dana, Indiana native Ernest Taylor Pyle was killed in 1945 on Okinawa in the last pitched battle of World War II. Infantry soldiers buried him with his helmet still on. He was 44.

He won a Pulitzer in 1944 for his interviews of “dogface” soldiers for the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain.

His early reporting as America’s first aviation columnist created a friendship with legendary pilot Amelia Earhart.

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