Denver Press Club Hall of Fame
The Denver Press Club Hall of Fame honors journalists and communicators who have given tremendous service to the Club or had a distinguished career in Colorado journalism. The Club inducts a handful of members into the Hall of Fame each fall.
RSVP
The Denver Press Club is proud to induct four more journalists into our Hall of Fame. Please join us for a banquet in honor of:
April Zesbaugh
Gil Asakawa
Jim Benemann
Mike Nelson
The event will start with a 5:00 p.m. pre-party at the Denver Press Club before moving to the Slate Hotel just around the corner for the ceremony and dinner at 600 p.m. We are also excited to announce that each inductee has graciously offered an item or their time for an auction at the event:
April Zesbaugh will record a professional answering machine message for your cellphone,
Gil Asakawa will guide you through a delicious meal at on of Denver’s fantastic Asian eateries,
Jim Benemann will invite you to join him at an Colorado Avalanche game,
and Mike Nelson will arrange dinner for four.
Purchase your tables and tickets early as we have a limited number of seats for this event!
April Zesbaugh has delivered morning news since she joined KOA in 1996 and is one of the longest running radio news personalities in Denver. As a mainstay of KOA’s news magazine format, Zesbaugh has worked with three different co- hosts and survived three station-ownership changes, all while experiencing KOA expand beyond AM radio to include HD-Radio, an FM-simulcast, internet-streaming and podcasting. In addition to providing daily breaking news and interviews, she’s broadcast from live remotes at major news event such as 9/11 anniversaries in NYC, national political conventions, presidential inaugurations, and the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, three Broncos Super Bowls, and an American Idol finale. She’s held countless face-to-face interviews with celebrities and politicians, including comedians Bob Saget and Kevin Nealon, Olympian Amy Van Dyken, and Colorado governors and congressional leaders.
Gil Asakawa is a journalist, author, and blogger who covers Japan, Japanese American and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) culture and identity in blogs, articles and social media. His blog is at www.nikkeiview.com. He is a nationally- known speaker, panelist and expert on Japanese American and Asian American history and identity. He’s the author of “Being Japanese American” (Stone Bridge Press), a history of Japanese in America originally published in 2004 and revised in 2014, and co-author of “The Toy Book” (Alfred Knopf, 1991), a history of the toys of the Baby Boom generation. His latest book is “Tabemasho! Let’s Eat!” (Stone Bridge Press), a history of Japanese food in America.
Jim Benemann is a Denver news anchor whose career spanned 44 years to the TV news business and 36 years in local broadcasting. Benemann is one of Denver’s longest running evening TV news anchors. He was the face of the evening news on CBS Colorado since 2002, and anchored alongside Karen Leigh since 2008. Jim is a Chicago native and moved to Colorado to attend Colorado State University, earning a degree in broadcasting in 1978. Over the decades, his award-winning anchoring and reporting has included major assignments on local, national and international stories. Jim’s reporting career has seen him file stories from five continents, including two Olympic Games, covering Capitol Hill in Washington and military veterans returning to the places they served, including the battlefields of France and the jungles of Vietnam. Jim’s TV news career began in Davenport, Iowa. Prior to returning to CBS4 where he anchored in the early 1990’s, Jim worked at Denver’s KUSA-TV and at KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon.
Mike Nelson and his family moved to Denver and he served as Chief Meteorologist for 9News until the spring of 2004, when he moved to KMGH-TV. Mike continues to serve as Chief Meteorologist for Denver7. Mike has authored three books on weather and climate, The Colorado Weather Almanac (2007) and The Colorado Weather Book (1999) and the recent “World’s Littlest Book on Climate”. He spends considerable time writing and teaching about the science and the dangers of Global Warming. In his 47 year career, Mike has won 20 Emmy awards for Weather Excellence. He is also a recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award and a two-time winner of the Colorado Broadcaster of the Year award.
2021
Sandra Dillard
A ground-breaker, Sandra was the first Black female reporter at The Denver Post, where she spent three decades in a variety of roles.
Rosalind "Bee" Harris
The founder, publisher and editor of the Denver Urban Spectrum newspaper, Bee provided an outlet to tell the stories about people of color that weren’t being told in the mainstream media.
Mike Littwin
A fixture in Denver for the past 25 years, Mike is a columnist for the Colorado Sun.
Kathy Walsh
A major presence on Denver’s TV screens for more than 35 years, Kathy was an award-winning, highly respected reporter and anchor at KCNC.
Alan Berg
Posthumous award. A man who spoke his mind, challenged assumptions, and relished a fight about ideas, the 850 KOA talk show host drew huge audiences even as he rubbed some people the wrong way. Neo-nazis murdered Berg in the driveway of his Denver home in 1984.
2019
Sam Adams
Former sportswriter at the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News
John Sunderland
Former director of photography for The Denver Post
Tina Griego
Managing editor at the Colorado Independent, former columnist for the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News
Mike Landess
Former television anchor at KUSA-TV, KDVR-TV and KMGH-TV
Bob Martin
Posthumous award, former play-by-play announcer for the Denver Broncos on KOA NewsRadio
2018
Jerry Bell
Managing editor of KOA NewsRadio
Greg Moore
Former editor of The Denver Post
Janet Reeves
Former director of photography at the Rocky Mountain News
Anne Trujillo
KMGH-TV News Anchor
John Temple
Former editor of the Rocky Mountain News
Lowell Thomas
Posthumous award; preeminent radio broadcaster and journalist.
2017
Adele Arakawa
Former KUSA-TV news anchor
Dean Singleton
Former publisher and owner of The Denver Post
Irv Moss
Sports writer who worked at The Denver Post for 60 years
Greg Dobbs
Former ABC News correspondent and Denver Post columnist
Craig F. Walker
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning photographer at The Denver Post
Frances Foster
Posthumous award; columnist for the Rocky Mountain News, wrote Mrs. Molly Mayfield, a forerunner of advice columns.
2016
Floyd Ciruli
Longtime Colorado public policy researcher and pollster.
Patti Dennis
Vice President of KUSA-TV and director of recruiting for TEGNA Media
Carl Miller
Capitol bureau reporter, columnist, capitol bureau chief and editorial page editor for The Denver Post.
Dave Krieger
Spent 30 years as a sports columnist for the Boulder Daily Camera, Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post
Mary Chase
Posthumous award, author of Harvey
2015
Lynn Bartels
Police reporter for the Rocky Mountain News
Mary Voelz Chandler
Arts critic & architecture reporter, Rocky Mountain News
Rich Clarkson
The Denver Post, National Geographic and Clarkson Creative
Mike Keefe
Denver Post cartoonist; won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning, 2011.
Damon Runyon
Posthumous award, former Denver Press Club member and creator of Guys & Dolls
2014
Vincent Carroll
Longtime editorial page editor for the Rocky Mountain News until 2009; editorial page editor, The Denver Post, 2009-2016
Al Nakkula
Posthumous award. Police reporter for the Rocky Mountain News. The Press Club's award for police reporting is named for him.
Peggy Lowe
Longtime reporter for the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post; part of the Post team that won the Pulitzer for coverage of the Columbine High School massacre.
Mark Stutz
Longtime public relations and media relations guru, Xcel Energy.
Robert Threlkeld
Washington, D.C. reporter for the Rocky Mountain News during Watergate; also reported for The Denver Post.
2013
Eugene Field
Posthumous award. Editor, Denver Tribune, 1881-83; poet who wrote "Wynken, Blynken & Nod" and "Little Boy Blue" and once impersonated playwright Oscar Wilde (at left in photo).
Gary Gerhardt
Environment and local news reporter, Rocky Mountain News; covered the assassination of Alan Berg.
Michael Balfe Howard
Editor, Rocky Mountain News
Pocky Marranzino Sr.
Rocky Mountain News
Garrett Ray
Littleton Independent
Joseph S. Sinisi
The Denver Post
2012
Frederick G. Bonfils
The Denver Post
John Dunning
Author and journalist
Kevin Flynn
Rocky Mountain News
Carl Hilliard
Associated Press
Bertha Lynn
KMGH TV
Harry H. Tammen
The Denver Post
REMOVED: Father Woody (C.B. Woodrich)
Archdiocese of Denver – Removed: Woodrich, the longtime editor of Denver's archdiocesan newspaper and a highly visible regional spokesperson for the Roman Catholic Church, was credibly accused of child sex abuse through multiple claims substantiated by Colorado Attorney General Special Master Bob Troyer on Dec. 1, 2020. On Dec. 15, 2020, the Board of Directors of the Denver Press Club voted unanimously to remove Woodrich from the Hall of Fame. His name, and this information, remains here for the historical record.
2011
Bruce Goldberg
DPC president and associate editor at the Denver Business Journal
Ned High
Broadcasting and public relations veteran
Gwin Johnston
Founder of JohnstonWells Public Relations
Leonard “Buzz” Larsen
The Denver Post
Jean Otto
Formerly of the Rocky Mountain News
Polly Pry
Awarded posthumously. Denver Post investigative reporter, exposed abuses at the Fort Lewis Indian boarding school in 1903. Also wrote about Colorado's only convicted cannibal, Alfred Packer, helping him win a pardon.
2010
William Byers
Founder of the Rocky Mountain News
Bill Daniels
Cable pioneer
Cynthia Hessin
Reporter and anchor for Rocky Mountain PBS
Mike McPhee
Reporter for The Denver Post
Greg Pearson
Journalism professor at Metropolitan State College of Denver
Neil Westergaard
Editor for the Denver Business Journal
2009
Red Fenwick
"Ridin' the Range" reporter for The Denver Post
Dick Kreck
Columnist for The Denver Post
Harry Rhoads
Photographer for the Rocky Mountain News
Marilyn Robinson
Reporter for The Denver Post
Paula Woodward
Investigative reporter for 9News KUSA TV
2008
Denny Dressman
Sports editor and vice president of human resources for the Rocky Mountain News, past DPC president
Jack Foster
Editor for the Rocky Mountain News
Gil Spencer
Editor of The Denver Post, New York Daily News and Philadelphia Daily News
Joan White
Reporter and editor for the Denver Post
Dick Woodbury
Denver correspondent for Time, reporter for the Denver Post
2007
Helen Bonfils
Publisher of The Denver Post
Patricia Calhoun
Co-founder, publisher and editor of Westword
John Ensslin
Reporter for the Rocky Mountain News, past DPC president
Jack Kisling
Reporter and columnist for The Denver Post
George Lane
Reporter for The Denver Post
2006
Peter Blake
Reporter and political columnist for the Rocky Mountain News
Joe Fuentes
Reporter for the Rocky Mountain News and public relations professional
Cle Cervi Symons
Editor of Cervi's Journal and former Denver Woman's Press Club president
Starr Yelland
Anchor and broadcast pioneer for KMGH-Channel 7
2005
Carl Akers
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Lou Kilzer
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Bill Kostka, Jr.
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Bill Peery
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2004
Dan Gibson
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Greg Lopez
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Roger Ogden
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Pat Oliphant
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Ed Stein
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2003
Fred Brown
Reporter, editor and columnist at the Denver Post, 1963 to 2002. Regarded as one of the nation's top experts on media ethics.
Jim Conrad
Twin brother of Paul Conrad, longtime commercial artist in Denver.
Virginia Culver
Longtime religion writer for The Denver Post.
Sue O’Brien
First woman to serve as a television news editor in Denver and first woman editor of The Denver Post's editorial page. Prior to joining the Post, she was a tenured faculty member in the University of Colorado Boulder journalism school, and served as press secretary to Gov. Richard Lamm and managed the campaign for Gov. Roy Romer.
2002
Tom Pade
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Joe McGowan, Jr.
Bureau chief for the Associated Press, Denver. When he worked for AP in India, he introduced the world to Mother Theresa.
Ralph Moore
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Ed Sardella
Longtime anchor and reporter for 9News (originally, KBTV, now KUSA), Denver.
2001
Paul Conrad
Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist, he won the Denver Post's first Pulitzer in 1964. He won two more for the Los Angeles Times and was a finalist twice more.
Thomas Hornsby Ferrill
Colorado's first poet laureate and prolific author, Ferrill was a Press Club regular. The honored back table in the dining room is named after him. His poem "Here is a Land Where Life is Written in Water" can be found as part of a mural on the first floor of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver.
Edwin Palmer Hoyt
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Jean Tool
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2000
Lee Casey
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Hall Heffron
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Ivan Rosenberg
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Zeke Scher
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1999
Isabelle Holmes
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Sam Lusky
City editor of the Rocky Mountain News. Dusty Saunders called him the "Rocky's version of Lou Grant."
Dusty Saunders
Longtime entertainment critic for the Rocky Mountain News and one of the nation's top entertainment reporters.