The Chicago Headline Club, one of the largest Society of Professional Journalists chapters in the country, is pleased to announce the winners of its Lifetime Achievement Awards for 2015.
The honors go to veteran journalists Jon Hilkevitch, Linda Lenz and Harry Porterfield, who will be honored for their extraordinary work in Chicago journalism at the CHC’s Lisagor Awards banquet on May 6, 2016. The award is bestowed on those who have made lasting contributions to the community and profession.
Hilkevitch, a Chicago Tribune transportation writer and columnist for nearly 37 years, is being lauded for his work as the consummate beat reporter, holding officials accountable for delivering essential services to the city while regularly helping to improve people’s daily Hilkevitch was best known for his “Getting Around” column and for hard-hitting investigations of Chicago area transit. In 2001, a team of Tribune reporters co-led by Hilkevitch was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism for their series “Gateway to Gridlock,” which chronicled the capacity crisis confronting the airline industry and the nation’s commercial airports.
Lenz is the founder and longtime publisher of Catalyst Chicago, a publication dedicated to chronicling efforts to educate the city’s children. Before launching Catalyst in 1990, she was the education writer for the Chicago Sun-Times and an editorial writer for the Chicago Daily News. She also is former president of the Education Writers Association, a 900-member organization that promotes informed coverage of education.
Lenz was a trailblazer for founding Catalyst during a period of immense change in Chicago Public Schools. Its mission is just as important today, as a go-to source for education coverage as the CPS continues struggling through its challenges. She has mentored many a reporter as Catalyst took the school system to task at every opportunity.
Porterfield was an anchorman and reporter at CBS 2 and ABC 7 for more than 50 years, earning him 11 regional Emmy awards, an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Journalism Award, a Studs Terkel Award and the Operation PUSH Media Fairness Award.
Porterfield was perhaps best known for his long-running profile series, “Someone You Should Know,” which first aired in 1977. He also created the Emmy-award winning shows “Channel Two: The People” and “Two on Two.” He began his career in broadcast journalism in 1955 as a jazz disc jockey with radio station WKNX in Saginaw, Michigan.
The Lisagor awards dinner will be held Friday May 6, 2016, at The Union League Club of Chicago, 65 W. Jackson St. Cocktails begin at 5:30 p.m. and the dinner and awards presentation is at 7 p.m. The cost to attend is $90 for Headline Club members, $105 for non-members and $900-$1080 for a table of 10-12.
In addition to the Lifetime Achievement Award and Lisagor prizes, awarded in a variety of categories, the club also awards two additional special prizes: The Watchdog Award, for excellence in public interest reporting, and The Anne Keegan Award, named after a former Chicago Tribune reporter who highlighted the plight and achievements of the common man.
Tickets may be purchased here:
Questions about the Lisagor dinner may be sent to Kathy Catrambone at kcatrambone@hotmail.com