Dynamic duo enter NCEW's 'Hall of Fame'.

Imagine Taylor's and Morgan McGinley's surprise when each received the honor of Life Membership at the NCEW convention's closing banquet in Kansas City.

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In mischievous fun, each was assigned to write the certificate of Life Membership for the other. Former NCEW Foundation president Tommy Denton showed up in referee attire to determine who would go first. These tandem honors represent the first time in thirteen years that the NCEW board has honored two people at the same time. Kay Semion, chair of the committee charged with making the Life Member recommendation, said the decision was a consensus of the committee.

The longtime friends and fishing buddies have worked in lockstep with each other over years for the advancement of NCEW and its Foundation. Both are past presidents of NCEW, and McGinley is past president of the Foundation--a position Taylor holds now.

In the latter job, both have steered the Foundation into a dramatic transformation that has kicked up the level of its fundraising and opening up a larger potential landscape for the organization.

McGinley is recently retired from the The Day in New London, Connecticut. In 2005, John Taylor retired as editorial page editor of the Wilmington News Journal in Delaware, and is currently executive director of the Delaware Public Policy Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization established to conduct research and encourage study and discussions of policies, programs, and issues affecting the State of Delaware.

Detroit writer wins Pulliam grant

Jeff Gerritt, an editorial writer and columnist for the Detroit Free Press, was recognized as the 2007 recipient of the Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship for Editorial Writing at the annual convention. The fellowship includes a $75,000 grant from the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Gerritt will study and write about urban issues, including poverty, education, race relations, crime and punishment, economic development, housing, and public health. He will examine the lack of a national urban agenda and its consequences for large cities.

His findings and recommendations for policy change will be published as an ongoing series on the editorial page of the Free Press beginning in January and ending just before the November election. The idea is to put urban issues front and center during the election year, he said.

A former metro reporter, Gerritt has been an editorial writer since 2000. Gerritt's recent work includes a series of editorials based on his investigation of prison health care in Michigan. "We don't wait for the news side to break a story" he said.

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Florida educator wins Bingham award

Dr. Valerie D. White, assistant professor of journalism at Florida A&M University, was awarded the Barry Bingham Sr. Fellowship at the convention. The award recognizes her wide-ranging support of minority journalism students as a teacher, mentor, and adviser to the university's student newspaper.

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"I consider this to be my calling," White said in accepting the award. She thanked NCEW "for recognizing those of us in the trenches"

She chairs the Black College Communication Association, a group of advisers to campus media at historically black colleges and universities. As adviser to A&T's student newspaper, the Famuan, she conducts an annual 'boot camp" for its incoming staff that has been used as a modal by other universities.

In her nomination, White was praised for the enthusiasm she brings to teaching and her insistence on rigorous professional standards. As one former student put it: 'Dr. White challenges all of her students to aim high and to move past barriers of self-defeat and complacency" The award comes with a thousand-dollar honorarium to further her work.