September 20, 2024
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MPA Hall of Fame to add 3 members

The late Dwight Sargent, a nationally-known editorial writer and curator of the Nieman Foundation, is one of three journalists elected to the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame.

Other inductees are Bob Saunders, former managing editor of the Journal Tribune in Biddeford, and the late Sheila Tenggren, longtime editor and publisher of the weekly Lincoln News.

The three will be inducted Oct. 6 at the association’s annual fall conference in Bar Harbor. The addition will bring the number of Maine newspaper professionals granted membership in the MPA Hall of Fame to 37, for career contributions either in Maine or out of state.

A Colby College graduate, Sargent was a reporter, editorial writer and editorial director for the Portland Press Herald before becoming editorial page editor for the New York Herald Tribune.

After leaving the Nieman Foundation, he served as president of the Freedom of Information Foundation at the University of Missouri, editorial page editor at the Boston Herald American and national editorial writer for Hearst Newspapers. Sargent died in 2002.

His daughter, Janet Sargent, is a copy editor for the Bangor Daily News.

Saunders was with the Journal Tribune for 29 years, as a reporter, feature writer, editorial page editor and managing editor. MPA, citing his political reporting and feature writing, named him its Journalist of the Year in 1983.

Saunders, 60, left the newspaper for a career change in 2004, becoming proprietor of a carpentry and home repair business.

Tenggren acquired the Lincoln News in 1981 after the death of her fiance. Her work for the paper over the next 24 years included reporting, photography and editing as well as running the business.

Tenggren, who died last year, was the association president in 1994-95.


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