News Media Initiative

The RIT School of Print Media presented the 27th Isaiah Thomas Award in Publishing to seven Pulitzer Prize-winning alumni from RIT's College of Imaging Arts and Sciences on September 22, 2011 at The Newseum in Washington, D.C.  

View photos from the event
View video of the Award Luncheon
View video of the Award Presentation

The Isaiah Thomas Award was established in 1979 by the School of Printing Management and Sciences (now School of Print Media) to honor leaders in the newspaper industry. The Award is named in tribute to an early leader of the American printing industry, Isaiah Thomas, who in 1779 established The Massachusetts Spy and in 1810 wrote The History of Printing in America, which was regarded as the basic source of information on early American printing and publishing.

The 2011 Recipients: Seven Distinguished, Pulitzer Prize-Winning RIT Alumni

Paul Benoit ’76, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1979 in the Feature Photography category while working for Boston Herald-American. Benoit and members of the paper’s photography staff won for their coverage of the blizzard of 1978.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Robert Bukaty ’82, winner of Pulitzer Prize in 1999 while working for The Associated Press. Bukaty and fellow RIT alumnus Dan Loh were part of the AP photography staff honored in the Feature Photography category for their series of images of the key players and events surrounding President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky and the impeachment hearings.               

Ken Geiger ’80, winner of Pulitzer Prize in 1993 while working for The Dallas Morning News. Geiger and William Snyder, an RIT alumnus who is currently the program chair of RIT’s photojournalism program, won in the Spot News Photography category for their images of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Stan Grossfeld ’73, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes in 1984 and 1985 while working for The Boston Globe. Grossfeld won in 1984 in the Spot News category for his series of photographs revealing the effects of war on the people of Lebanon. In 1985, he earned a Pulitzer in the Feature Photography category for a portfolio of images of the famine in Ethiopia and of illegal aliens on the Mexican border. Grossfeld was also among the finalists for Pulitzers in 1984, 1994 and 1996.                        

Daniel Loh ’95, winner of Pulitzer Prize in 1999 in the Features Photography category while working for The Associated Press, for his coverage of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.                                                                                                                                                            

William Snyder ’81, winner of four Pulitzer Prizes, in 1989, 1991, 1993 and 2006, while working for The Dallas Morning News. Snyder was honored in 1989 in the Explanatory Journalism category. Snyder was part of a three-person team that reported how the National Transportation Safety Board conducts air-crash investigations following a crash in 1986. In 1991, Snyder won a Pulitzer in the Feature Photography category for his images of ill and orphaned children living in deplorable conditions in Romania. Snyder and Geiger won in the Spot News category in 1993 for their images of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Under Snyder’s leadership as director of photography at The Dallas Morning News, the staff earned a Pulitzer in 2006 in the Breaking News Photography category for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina.                         

Anthony Suau ’78, winner of Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for Feature Photography while at The Denver Post, for a portfolio of images depicting the tragic effects of starvation in Ethiopia and for a single photograph of a woman at her husband’s gravesite on Memorial Day.

“This group of distinguished photojournalists has demonstrated significant career achievements in the news media industry,” says Twyla Cummings, the Paul and Louise Miller Distinguished Professor at RIT. “By bestowing them with the Isaiah Thomas Award in Publishing, it further highlights the caliber of their journalistic work and their significant contributions to the industry. We are excited to honor them at the Newseum as it aligns with the tradition and spirit that Isaiah Thomas symbolized.”

About the Award:  As part of the selection process, nominations are solicited from prominent individuals in the newspaper industry.  Some of the key criterion for the recipient of this award is:

• An individual in the industry who had distinguished him or herself through leadership, innovation, research, or other significant contributions.
• Has demonstrated career achievements that would qualify him or her as a role model for students pursuing careers in the fields of printing, publishing, and media.
• Has exhibited some element of risk-taking in communicating his or her message.

In addition to selecting an individual worthy of this honor the key objectives associated with the Isaiah Thomas Award are to:

• Engage students in the event and to stimulate their interest in news media.
• Create excitement on RIT’s campus.
• Draw in the local community by sponsoring an event that is connected to the newspaper industry and the academic community.