A List
3/28/05

'NEW YORKER' EDITOR ROSS SUBJECT OF SLU LECTURE

CANTON – Thomas Kunkel, dean of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at 
the University of Maryland, will present the Friends of Owen D. Young and 
Launders Libraries' Ninth Annual Lecture on Reading, titled "Seriously Funny: 
The Life and Times of The New Yorker's Harold Ross." The event, open to the 
public free of charge, is on Thursday, April 7, at 7 p.m. in Herring-Cole, 
with a reception to follow.
	For three years before becoming dean in 2000, Kunkel was director and 
editor of the Project on the State of the American Newspaper, an extensive 
examination of the business led by legendary editor (and Maryland journalism 
professor) Gene Roberts. The 18-part series appeared in American Journalism 
Review and was later updated in a two-volume anthology published by the 
University of Arkansas Press.
	A writer and editor, Kunkel has spent most of his career in newspaper 
management. Most recently he was deputy managing editor of the San Jose 
Mercury News. Prior to that, he worked for the Miami Herald, the New York 
Times and the Cincinnati Post, and he was editor and publisher of Arizona 
Trend magazine. When he was named executive editor of Knight-Ridder's 
Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer, he was, at age 29, the youngest top editor 
in company history.
	From 1992 to 1997, Kunkel worked as a freelance writer. His first book, 
Genius in Disguise: Harold Ross of the New Yorker, was named a New York Times 
Notable Book of 1995. A second book, Enormous Prayers: A Journey Into the 
Priesthood, appeared in 1998. His collection of the correspondence of Ross, 
entitled Letters From the Editor, was published in 2000 by the Modern Library 
and was also selected as a New York Times Notable Book. Kunkel also has written 
magazine pieces for Sports Illustrated, Hope, George and American Journalism 
Review.
	The Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland has 
500 undergraduates and operates master's and doctoral programs in journalism. 
It also runs five centers devoted to professional development and publishes 
American Journalism Review magazine. 
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