U of M Journalism Alumni Club Will Honor Outstanding Alumni on November 5

For release: October 26, 2009
For press information, contact Gabrielle Maxey (901) 678-2843

The University of Memphis Journalism Alumni Club will honor three outstanding journalists at its annual awards dinner on Thursday, November  5, at The Racquet Club of Memphis. The alumni club will present Kini Kedigh Plumlee and David Waters with the Charles E. Thornton Outstanding Alumni Award; Jerry Klein will receive the Herbert Lee Williams Award.

A reception will begin at 6 p.m., with the dinner following at 7 p.m.. Tickets are $50 per person or $375 for a table of eight. Reservation deadline is October 30. For reservations, contact alumni coordinator Fariss Adams Ivey at (901) 678-4373. 

Plumlee is communications specialist for the Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center Foundation and editor of Le Bonheur magazine. Under her direction, Le Bonheur won the gold award from the Healthcare Advertising Awards and the Prism Award from the Tennessee Society for Healthcare Marketing and Public Relations. From 2003-05, Plumlee was a columnist and editor for The Commercial Appeal’s Bartlett Appeal section. Earlier she served as director of communications for Theatre Memphis and public relations director for the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. She also has been a freelance writer, editor, reporter and public relations and marketing specialist.
As a member of The Helmsman staff, Plumlee interviewed Congressman and presidential candidate Mo Udall, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, comedy duo Cheech and Chong and Barry Manilow. She was The Helmsman’s first female editor.

Waters is editor and producer of On Faith, The Washington Post’s online religion news and commentary. Since joining The Post in 2007, his subjects have included Bishop Desmond Tutu, the Dali Lama, Pope Benedict XVI, Bono and Richard Gere. He also produces a blog for the Post.
Waters worked at The Commercial Appeal for 27 years, advancing from bureau reporter to copy editor, wire editor and associate editor, and covering everything from education to politics to religion. He was the Faith Matters columnist for nine years, exploring the ways faith matters to Memphians, not only once a week during worship services but in their everyday lives. Among his many honors, Waters was named Scripps Howard Headline Writer of the Year and Column Writer of the Year, and was inducted into the Scripps Howard Editorial Hall of Fame. He won the Wilbur Award for best newspaper column and was a finalist twice for the Religion Writer of the Year award from the Religion Newswriters Association. While at The Commercial Appeal, Waters created and led The Commercial Appeal Writing Fellowship, an on-the-job development program for writers and editors, and co-created a Journalism Academy.

Klein is founder and director of Kossman/Klein & Company, a full-service advertising, marketing and public relations firm. He and his wife, Juliet Kossman Klein, are the sole staff and management of the firm. Klein is chairman of the Economic Development Commission of the City of Germantown, serves on the board of directors and executive committee of the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, and is chairman of the Memphis Tourism Foundation. He also is past president of the Mid-South Advertising Agency Association.

The Charles E. Thornton Award is named for a Memphis journalist who was killed while on assignment in Afghanistan in 1985. The Herbert L. Williams Award is named for the U of M Journalism Department’s founding chair.