JIM LEHRER TO BE HONORED WITH INAUGURAL
OU GAYLORD PRIZE

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: OU Public Affairs, (405) 325-1701

NORMAN – Jim Lehrer, one of the most respected journalists in the United States and executive editor and anchor for “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” is the inaugural recipient of the Gaylord Prize, established by the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication to honor a nationally recognized journalist with high standards of excellence.

Lehrer, an Emmy- and Peabody-award-winning journalist, has been chosen to moderate the presidential and vice presidential debates for the past five elections and will again host the first presidential debate on Sept. 26.

“We are grateful to the Gaylord family for endowing this prize of national importance and designating the University of Oklahoma to award it,” said OU President David L. Boren. “There could not be a more appropriate first recipient of the award then Jim Lehrer. No journalist in America is more respected or sets higher standards than he does.”

The inaugural Gaylord Prize, funded from an endowment established by the Edward L. Gaylord family, will be awarded to Lehrer during a luncheon Nov. 17 in the Grand Ballroom of the Skirvin Hilton Hotel in Oklahoma City.

Lehrer’s long-term partnership with Robert MacNeil began in the 1970s when they teamed to cover the Senate Watergate hearings, an endeavor for which they received an Emmy Award. The two paired officially for “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report” in 1976 and together received more than 30 awards for journalistic excellence. After 20 years on the air, MacNeil retired in 1996 and the show became “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.”

Lehrer also is an accomplished novelist and playwright. He has written a successful book series featuring the adventures of a fictional lieutenant governor of Oklahoma with locations set at the Oklahoma State Capitol and the Skirvin Hotel. The most recent installment, Mack to the Rescue, was released in April by the OU Press. In addition, he has authored several historical mysteries, two memoirs and three plays. His 19th novel, Oh Johnny, will be published in April 2009.

Born in Wichita, Kan., in 1934, Jim Lehrer received his associate’s degree from Victoria College and a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1956 from the University of Missouri before joining the Marine Corps. Lehrer began his journalism career with the Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Times-Herald before moving to broadcast news with the Dallas-area public broadcasting network, KERA-TV, where he was executive director of public affairs, on-air host and editor of a nightly news program. Lehrer later moved to Washington, D.C., first as public affairs coordinator for KERA, then as correspondent with the National Public Affairs Center for Television.

Lehrer has received numerous awards for journalism, including, in 1999, the National Humanities Medal and induction into the Television Hall of Fame with MacNeil and into the Silver Circle of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He also has won two Emmys, the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award, the George Foster Peabody Broadcast Award, the William Allen White Foundation Award for Journalistic Merit and the University of Missouri School of Journalism’s Medal of Honor. In 1991, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was OU’s Commencement speaker in 1996; also that year, OU conferred upon him its highest honor, the honorary doctor of humane letters.

For more information about the Nov. 17 luncheon honoring Lehrer, please contact Kristen Lazalier at (405) 325-7670.