Kentucky newspaper publishers to be honored

WATERVILLE – Tom and Pat Gish, owners and publishers of the Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky., will receive the 49th Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award for journalism at Colby College on Oct. 11. The award, established in 1952, is presented annually to honor important contributions to the nation’s journalist achievement and to remember Lovejoy, a Colby graduate who was America’s first martyr to freedom of the press.

The Gishes were selected for their courage in writing about the failures of the war on poverty, the ravages of strip mining, mine safety, home-loan gouging by eastern Kentucky banks, union leaders’ corruption, police brutality and problems in local schools. Since purchasing the newspaper in 1957 they have endured shunning, threats against their children, accusations that they were communists, boycotts, and a firebombing that destroyed their newspaper office in 1974.

As Colby’s 2001 Lovejoy fellows, the Gishes will receive honorary doctor of law degrees and will deliver an address at the college on Oct. 11. The Lovejoy Convocation is open to the public.