Times Staffers Win 50 of 91 Awards at Press Club Banquet

Staff members of the Orange County Edition of the Los Angeles Times captured 50 of 91 awards Saturday, including best news story and best feature story, at the annual Orange County Press Club editorial awards banquet.

The Times won 17 first-place awards, 13 second places and 20 honorable mentions.

The prestigious John (Sky) Dunlap award for life achievement in journalism and devotion to community service in Orange County went to reporter Larry Welborn of the Orange County Register.

The Register captured 21 awards--seven first places, nine second places and three honorable mentions. The Register also won two special categories: investigative reporting and the government watchdog category.

Annual Banquet

The awards were presented at the annual press club banquet at the Irvine Hilton Hotel on Saturday night. Bob Navarro of KNBC-TV was the master of ceremonies.

The award for best news story of the year went to Times reporter Bob Schwartz for his account of a newlywed couple attacked while sitting in a car in Santa Ana by gang members.

Times reporter Jim Carlton won in the best feature category for his story on a United Parcel Service deliveryman who founded a group that provides turkeys each Thanksgiving to about 2,000 American Indians on reservations.

Times photographer Ken Hively took five awards: firsts for best photographic essay and for best photographic portfolio; second-place awards for best news and best feature photographs, and an honorable mention in the best pictorial category.

Times reporter Marcida Dodson captured two firsts, one for best public affairs story and another for best law-related story, and an honorable mention for best science story.

Two First Places

Artist Leavett Biles also won two first places, one for best informational graphic and for best graphics portfolio. A story by Times reporters Leslie Berkman and Mark Pinsky on the Rev. Robert Schuller’s ministry won the award for best business and finance story. Times reporter Lanie Jones was honored for the best story on social issues. And reporter Mark Landsbaum won the Marjorie Freeman Award for best humorous story.

Times photographers Richard Koehler, Henry DiRocco, Kari Rene Hall and Don Tormey won first-place awards in separate categories--Koehler for best feature photograph, DiRocco for best sports photograph, Hall for best portrait and Tormey for best pictorial. Tormey also picked up second-place awards for best photographic essay and best photographic portfolio. Hall also won honorable mentions for best feature photograph and best photographic portfolio. And DiRocco also won two honorable mention for best pictorial and best news photograph.

Charles Nigash, news editor for the new Orange County LIFE section, won first place for best feature page layout portfolio for front pages he designed for LIFE. And artist Steve Lopez won the top award for best illustration.

Sherry Angel, assistant special projects editor for The Times, won the best column award for a story she wrote while working as editor of Orange County Businessweek. And Carlton shared the best investigative award for a story he co-authored while at the Orange County Register. His co-writer was Michael A. Lednovich.

Other Times staff members who won awards for second place and honorable mentions were writers Lanie Jones, David Reyes and Richard Beene for separate stories in the news story category; Claudia Luther in the public affairs category; Dianne Klein and Lynn Smith for separate stories on law; Lanie Jones and Barbara J. Ludovise for separate stories on sports, and Mark Pinsky in social issues and beat coverage categories.

Also winning were staff writers Mary Ann Galante in the business story category; James S. Granelli and Mark Landsbaum, business story category; Granelli in beat coverage category; Rick Vanderknyff in science and technology; Chris Pasles in entertainment story, and Maria La Ganga in humorous story category.

Also winning were photographers Gail Fisher in pictorial, portrait and feature categories; Mark Boster in portrait; Gary Ambrose in news photograph, and Jacke Crump and David Muronaka for separate sports photographs.

Register writers taking top honors were Jean Pasco, Judith I. Brennan and Larry Peterson in the special government watchdog category; Michele Himmelberg for best sports story; Pat Kiger for best series; John Horn for best entertainment story; Martin Smith for best science and technology story, and Jane Glenn Haas for best beat coverage.

Register assistant news editor Terry Greenberg won the award for best news page layout portfolio. Former Register photographer Sam Mircovich won the award for best news photograph as well as a second place in the sports photograph category.

Other Register writers winning second-place and honorable-mention awards were Carroll Lachnit, Cheryl Downey, Anita Snow, Ann Imse, Jonathan Lansner, Enrique Rangel and Barbara Serrano. Assistant news editors David Petro and Gene Harbrecht also won awards.

The best editorial award went to Roger Bloom of the Newport Ensign. Pete Johnson of Orange Coast magazine had the best magazine story. And John Morrell of Orange Coast magazine won top honors for best headline portfolio.

The best news story in publications with less than 100,000 circulation was written by Lance Ignon of the Daily Pilot. And Scott Hayes of Orange Coast magazine had the best feature story among the smaller publications.

Other winners of second-place or honorable-mention awards were Daily Pilot reporters Ignon, Greg Klerkx, Jennifer Weber, Richard Hudson Jr., Don Fenley, Paul Archipley and Steve Marble; assistant editor Tom Titus and artist Rex Babin; Orange County Businessweek reporter Andre Mouchard and assistant editor Jonathan Jackel, and Orange County Business Journal assistant editors Kenneth Spears and D. Anne Shiffler. Also winning were Barbara Giasone of the La Habra Daily Star-Progress; Newport Ensign writer Bill Harvey; Orange Coast magazine writers Sharon Cohoon and Danny Pollock and assistant editors Leslie Freidson Lawicki and Daniel Fort; Waterfront writer Eston Ellis; Saddleback Valley News writer Maureen O’Haren, and UCI Journal assistant editor Linda Granell.

In the three public relations categories, top honors went to Colleen Bentley-Adler of UC Irvine for best news release, Mary Jane Foster of Saddleback Hospital for best feature release and Elaine Beno and Dale Eastman of UCI Medical Center for best internal publication. Other public relations winners were Bob Clay of Clay Communications and Cynthia Morris and Barbara Cronin, both of UCI.