Bill Geist to Receive Marist College Lowell Thomas Award

Bill Geist to Receive Marist College Lowell Thomas Award

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y., Aug. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Bill Geist, known for his humorous commentary and chronicling of America and Americans in his role as a correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning, is the recipient of the 2007 Marist College Lowell Thomas Award. Geist will be honored at a luncheon at the University Club in Manhattan on September 27.

(Photo:

http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070823/NYTH024 )

"Lowell Thomas knew how to tell a story, whether it was about his travels with Allenby in Palestine, his visit with the then-14 year-old-Dalai Lama, or average Americans across our nation," said Marist College President Dennis J. Murray. "Today, no one in broadcast journalism is a better story teller than Bill Geist."

Geist has been a correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning since he joined CBS News in August 1987. His work for the broadcast has been honored with two Emmy Awards, the most recent in 2005 for a profile of Fred Carl, who started the Viking Range company in Greenwood, Miss., and completely revitalized this small, impoverished town. Geist also won an Emmy for his report on the 66th anniversary of America's famed Route 66. He has added his humor and insight to various CBS News broadcasts as well as to CBS Sports productions including the 1992, 1994, and 1998 Olympic Winter Games, the World Series, Super Bowls, and NCAA basketball tournaments.

Prior to joining CBS News, Geist was a columnist for The New York Times (1980-87). His "About New York" column for the paper appeared twice a week. Before that, he worked for The Chicago Tribune, where he was a reporter and columnist (1972-80). Geist served as a combat photographer with the First Infantry Division in Vietnam (1969).

Geist is the best-selling author of seven books: Fore! Play; The Big Five Oh: Facing, Fearing and Fighting 50; Monster Trucks and Hair In A Can: Who Says America Doesn't Make Anything Anymore?; The New York Times bestseller Little League Confidential, an account of his experience as a coach of his son's and daughter's Little League baseball teams; City Slickers; and The Zucchini Plague and Other Tales of Suburbia. His latest book, Way Off the Road, is a compendium of his broadcasts on "the peculiar charms of small-town America." He has contributed articles to The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Vogue, Forbes and numerous other publications.

This is the 19th presentation of the Marist College Lowell Thomas Award, which recognizes outstanding individuals in the communications industry whose lives and work reflect the imagination, courage, ambition, and humanity of Lowell Thomas. Thomas received an honorary doctorate from Marist and was the college's commencement speaker in 1981. Marist's Lowell Thomas Communication Center is home to the college's School of Communication and the Arts and contains several galleries displaying rare Lowell Thomas memorabilia. Marist houses the late journalist's papers, film, photos, audio and videotaped broadcasts, and personal memorabilia in the Lowell Thomas Archives, located in the college's James A. Cannavino Library.

Previous recipients of the Marist College Lowell Thomas Award include Eric Sevareid, Walter Cronkite, Howard K. Smith, Douglas Edwards, David Brinkley, Harry Reasoner, John Chancellor, Barbara Walters, Charles Kuralt, Diane Sawyer, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, Mike Wallace, Charles Osgood, Cokie Roberts, Helen Thomas, and Lesley Stahl. Special awards were presented in 1992 to Fred Friendly, Don Hewitt, Dallas Townsend and Thomas Watson, Jr. to mark the centennial of Thomas's birth.

The Lowell Thomas Award Luncheon is open to the public. Reservations must be made by September 20. For ticket information, call the Marist College Office of Special Events at (845) 575-3359.

CONTACT: Tim Massie (845) 575-3171

Photo: NewsCom:

http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070823/NYTH024
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Marist College

CONTACT: Tim Massie of Marist College, +1-845-575-3171

Web site:

http://www.marist.edu/

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