Henry Pringle Lecture
The Henry Pringle Lecture is named for a long-time faculty member of this school, a Pulitzer Prize winner in biography and a reporter for The Washington Post.
Henry Fowles Pringle was born in New York City. He was educated at Cornell University and pursued a career as a journalist. He worked for the Boston Globe, the New York Evening Sun, the New York World, and the American Mercury, and later the Washington Post. He taught at the J-school from 1932-1943 and helped to strengthen the work in laboratory newspaper practice.
Pringle won the 1932 Pulitzer Prize in Biography for "Theodore Roosevelt," a work praised by some critics for its truthfulness. His other works include "Alfred E. Smith: A Critical Study and The Life and Times of William Howard Taft."
He left Columbia to work for the government during World War II. The Pringle Lectures were endowed by the school’s alumni in Washington, D.C. following Pringle’s death in 1958. The annual guest lecturer is asked to speak to graduates on Journalism Day, the day before the commencement ceremony, on any aspect of Washington politics, public affairs or the media.
Pringle Lecturers
Spring 2012 - David Brooks
Fall 2011 - Mark Whitaker
Spring 2011 - Nate Silver
2010 - Eugene Robinson
2009 - Joshua Micah Marshall
2008 - Dan Balz
2007 - Dana Priest
2006 - Farnaz Fassihi
2005 - Michael Kinsley
2004 - Walter Pincus
2003 - Molly Ivins
2002 - Mary McGrory
2001 - Jay Harris
2000 - William Greider
1999 - Tom Bettag
1998 - Ann McDaniel
1997 - Bill Buzenberg
1996 - Doris Kearns Goodwin
1995 - James Warren
1994 - Les Payne
1993 - Charlayne Hunter-Gault
1992 - Clarence Page
1991 - Maureen Dowd
1990 - Cokie Roberts
1989 - Neil Sheehan
1988 - Edna Buchanan
1987 - Charlayne Hunter-Gault
1986 - Murray Kempton
1985 - Sydney Schanberg
1984 - Ellen Goodman
1983 - William Raspberry
1982 - Frances Fitzgerald
1981 - Charles Kuralt
1980 - Henry Grunwald
1979 - Nat Hentoff
1978 - James Reston
1977 - Garry Wills
1976 - Daniel Schorr
1975 - Richard L. Strout
1974 - Joseph Kraft
1973 - Robert MacNeil
1972 - Flora Lewis
1971 - Max Frankel
1967 - Penn Kimball
1966 - Ferdinand Kuhn
1965 - Howard K. Smith
1964 - Marquis Childs
1963 - Max Freedman
1962 - Wallace Carroll
1961 - James Marlow