Times’ Writer Richard Meyer Wins Award

Times staff writer Richard E. Meyer has won the magazine reporting prize in the Society of Professional Journalists’ 1995 Sigma Delta Chi journalism awards.

Meyer’s award, announced Thursday by the society, recognizes his Dec. 17 cover story for the Los Angeles Times Magazine on Julia Tavalaro, a woman paralyzed so severely by a stroke that she is able to communicate only through slight eye and head movements.

To tell Tavalaro’s story, Meyer spent nearly 450 hours interviewing her. Tavalaro communicated with Meyer by raising her eyes as he pointed to letters of the alphabet on a card.

Raised in Mayer, Ariz., Meyer, 55, came to The Times in 1979 from the Associated Press.

Times Editor Shelby Coffey III called Meyer “one of the great literary journalists in America,” adding that “he has enormous reportorial flair for detail mixed with a powerful sense of narrative drive. He has distinguished the Los Angeles Times’ coverage over many years with many stories, sometimes selflessly rewriting others and refusing to take a byline. But this [story] is one of his finest. We are honored that SDX honored him for it.”

Other winners included the Wall Street Journal for public service and the Orange County Register for investigative reporting.