William Raspberry, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist syndicated with The Washington Post Writers Group, will speak on Friday, November 12, at 8 p.m. in Lorimer Chapel at Colby College. The convocation is open to the public.

Raspberry will receive the 47th Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award and an honorary Colby degree. Colby established the award in 1952 for an editor, reporter or publisher who has contributed to the nation’s journalistic achievement. Lovejoy was a Colby graduate who became America’s first martyr to freedom of the press when he was killed Nov. 7, 1837, defending his abolitionist newspaper from a pro-slavery mob.

Raspberry won the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary in 1994, the same year that The National Association of Black Journalists gave him its annual lifetime achievement award. In 1997, Washingtonian named him one of the 50 most influential journalists in the national press corps.

The Lovejoy Fellow is chosen by a committee of distinguished newspaper editors chaired by Bill Kovach, director of The Nieman Foundation at Harvard University. The selection committee also includes Jane Healy, managing editor of The Orlando Sentinel; William Hilliard, former executive editor of The Oregonian; Ann Marie Lipinski, managing editor of the Chicago Tribune; Rena Pederson, editorial page editor of the Dallas Morning News; Matthew V. Storin, editor of The Boston Globe; Cotter and the chair of Colby’s board of trustees.

At 1:15 p.m. on Friday, November 12, Hilliard, Lipinski and. Storin will discuss "The Fourth Estate In The Third Millennium: Politics and the Future of the News Media" in a panel discussion open to the public. The event will be in the Robins Room of Roberts building and is free of charge. Refreshments will be provided.