Foghorn Special Awards Winner

Two distinguished winners join the list of honorees as recipients of the San Diego Press Club’s Career Achievement Awards for 2007: Janet Lowe and Tom Sprague. The pair will be honored at the annual Journalism Awards event on November 7 at Chuey’s.

Harold Keen Award – Janet Lowe

Lowe is a pioneer in San Diego business journalism. She worked at the Daily Transcript and then as business editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune in the 1980s. She was the first journalist to write skeptically of financier J. David Dominelli, while others in the press were extolling him as a genius. She mentored young journalists and was a role model for many.

Lowe was the first woman to hold a job as a business editor in San Diego and was probably one of the first women nationwide at a major newspaper to hold that title. It was under her guidance that U-T greatly built its staff and business section into one that rivaled the best of metropolitan dailies.

When she left The Tribune, she did so after having written two books and with a contract to do another. Her first book, written with financial counselor Geraldine Weiss, was entitled Dividends Don't Lie.

Her career as a writer has included everything from freelance feature writer to travel writer, poet, reporter, editor, media spokesperson and author of 18 books and audiotapes. The “Speaks” series --  biographies of American leaders including Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jack Welch, Ted Turner, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan and others -- are her best-known books. Her freelance articles have been published in over 100 publications nationwide.

Lowe is past president of both the San Diego Press Club and Society of Professional Journalists.

Andy Mace Award – Tom Sprague, APR

Over the course of a 60-year career, Tom Sprague has exemplified fairness and integrity, and effectively disseminated the truth to concerned publics. Sprague landed his first job at the age of 14 as a copy boy on a daily newspaper in Northern California and has been associated with the news business ever since.

For more than three decades, he was a public relations executive with Aerojet-General, a maker of missile propulsion systems and other defense products. Sprague represented that company in a wide range of endeavors, the most prominent of which was the 1969 Lunar Landing.

In all of his dealings with the media, Sprague insisted on the truth, even if the news might not be favorable for his company. He has also said on more than one occasion that working with Walter Cronkite was a lot more fun than dealing with Mike Wallace.

Sprague was responsible for public relations activities as a volunteer with “Insights World Conference,” the San Diego Chamber of Commerce activity that featured prominent world leaders and helped raise San Diego’s image on the international scene. Sprague’s duties included pre-meeting publicity and handling of media interviews for such dignitaries as Henry Kissinger, Margaret Thatcher, Ann Richards, Larry King, Jimmy Carter, Shimon Peres, Colin Powell, and Mikhail Gorbachev.

In 1989, he started his own Public Relations firm in San Diego. Sprague also served on the Press Club Headliner of the Year committee and currently serves on the board of the Press Club Foundation. An APR (Accredited Public Relations) professional, Sprague has been a mentor and inspiration to others entering the public relations field.

Posted Oct. 2007