LOCAL SPJ PRESIDENTS

Beth Newberry - June 2007 - Present

Kathy Lehmann-Francis - 2006-2007 - Lehmann Francis is a former news director for Louisville’s WDRB-TV. Prior to becoming news director she served as assistant news director and executive producer at WDRB. Lehmann Francis has also worked as a news producer for WHAS-TV, CNN in Atlanta, and WLKY-TV in Louisville. She continues to serve on the chapter’s board.

Carolyn Greer - 2004-2006 - Greer is managing editor of Business First of Louisville.

Kit Millay Fullenlove - 2003-2004 - Fullenlove is a former editor of The Oldham Era and is now manager of public relations for Baptist Hospital East in Louisville and Baptist Hospital Northeast in La Grange. She is the first SPJ president to serve one term while a working journalist, and a second term as a public relations professional.

Chris Poynter - 2001-2003 - Poynter served two terms as president of Louisville SPJ. He's a reporter for The Courier-Journal, covering urban affairs, growth and development.

Michael Jones - 2001 - A full-time writer for LEO during his tenure as president, Jones is now a freelance writer.

Michael Lindenberger - 2000-2001 - Previously the managing editor of The Evening News in Jeffersonville, Ind., Lindenberger was the first full-time investigative reporter for the Messenger-Inquirer in Owensboro when he was elected chapter president. He then moved to Texas, where he worked as a reporter for The Dallas Morning News. In September 2002, he returned to his native Kentucky to work for The Courier-Journal as a state correspondent.

John Yarmuth - 1998-2000 - During his tenure as president, Yarmuth was editor and president of the Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO). Now executive editor, he continues to serve on the chapter's board.

Larry Muhammad - 1996-98 - Board member Muhammad is former Region 5 director. He also wrote, "Double V," a docudrama of the Negro Press and World War II on the life of crusading journalist Frank L. Stanley, late publisher of the Louisville Defender newspaper. Muhammad is a features writer at The Courier-Journal.

Jim St. Clair - 1994-96 - St. Clair continues on the Louisville SPJ board, overseeing the Lewis M.Conn Junior Journalist program. He is an associate professor of journalism at Indiana University Southeast in 1996. He is the co-author of two books.

Alanna Nash - 1993-94 - An author and nationally-known freelance writer, Nash has penned books on Elvis Presley, Jessica Savitch and Dolly Parton. Her latest work is on Col. Tom Parker,: The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Col. Tom Parker and Elvis Presley. She was the Society of Professional Journalists' National Member of the Year in 1994.

Kit Millay Fullenlove - 1992-93 - Editor of The Oldham Era, a weekly newspaper based in La Grange, at the time of her presidency, Millay Fullenlove left there in 1997 after nearly 14 years at the helm. She is now Public Relations manager at Baptist Hospital East and Baptist Hospital Northeast.

Donald B. Towles - 1991-92 - Towles retired as Vice President of Public Affairs for The Courier-Journal after 37 years. Since then, he has written a history of Kentucky newspapers, "The Press of Kentucky 1787-1994," published by the Kentucky Press Association. He also penned a history of his church, "Beargrass Christian Church 1842-1992." A writer of book reviews for the C-J, Voice-Tribune and LEO, he is also active in the UK Journalism
Association and the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.

Rachael Kamuf - 1988-91 - A writer for Business First during her presidency, Kamuf "retired" from there in the summer of 2000. She came out of "retirement" in October 2000 to become managing editor of the Louisville Eccentric Observer, better known as LEO. She now serves as Director of Publications for Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation.

Howard E. (Ed) Staats - 1987-88 - Staats retired from The Associated Press in the spring of 2002 after 41 years as a reporter, editor and manager in 10 AP offices, including AP's headquarters in New York. Now Staats does occasional newsroom consulting and remains active in the state's judges and journalists conference sponsored by the Administrative Office of the Courts and the University of Louisville.

Ken Shapero - 1986-87 - Shapero is the owner and proprietor of The Jazz Factory, a jazz club in downtown Louisville. Before opening the club, Shapero was a public relations, marketing and communications manager for the UPS Air Group in Louisville and, prior to that, spent 10 years as a newspaper reporter and editor in Washington, Nashville and Louisville. He is now interim director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky.

Jack Guthrie - 1985-86 - The first public relations practitioner to serve as chapter president, Guthrie is chairman and chief executive officer of Guthrie/Mayes Public Relations, the largest independently owned public relations firm in the state of Kentucky. Guthrie continues on the Louisville SPJ board of directors.

Al Cross - 1984-85 - Cross covered politics for The Courier-Journal for 25 years with primary responsibility for the statewide newspaper's political coverage, from presidential to local elections, and also covered state government, including the Kentucky General Assembly. He was national president of the Society of Professional Journalists from October 2001 to September 2002.
The former Region 5 director continues to serve on the SPJ Executive Committee and the board of SPJ's Sigma Delta Chi Foundation. He is now interim director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky.

Max Heath - 1983-84 - Heath is currently Vice President for Circulation/Postal/Acquisitions, Landmark Community Newspapers, Inc. (LCNI), a Shelbyville-based newspaper group with 51 papers in 12 states including 19 in Kentucky. Heath, current postal chairman for the National Newspaper Association, is a member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.

Ned McGrath - 1982-83 - Director of Communications for the Archdiocese of Detroit since 1991, McGrath is the first-line spokesperson for the archdiocese and its archbishop, Adam Cardinal Maida. He oversees the offices of public relations, television, and printing and mailing. At WHAS-TV, "That's Life" were McGrath's signature feature reports. He remains an active SPJ member, and served as a board member of the Detroit Chapter.

John C. Long - 1981-82 - Long served in several capacities at The Courier-Journal, including religion writer and ombudsman. He is now on the copy desk at the Wall Street Journal.

Diane Kimbel Belanger - 1980-81 - During her years on the SPJ/SDX board, Kimbel was first a reporter for The Louisville Times, then an associate editor (editorial writer) for The Courier Journal. The family moved when her husband, Bill, took a job in Monterey, Calif. where she has continued to take freelance assignments and, to a greater extent, do volunteer work.

Larry Pond - 1980 - Pond left the news director's job at WAVE-TV in August 1980 to become a broadcast consultant with Frank Magid Associates. He left as senior consultant in 1994 to become news director at WRTV in Indianapolis. Then, in 1997, he started an Indianapolis-based TV talent management company, The Pond Group, currently representing 65 on-air broadcast personnel nationwide.

Mike Wines - 1979-80 - Wines is now working in Moscow for The New York Times, where he's been since 1998. Before that, he was in the Times' Washington bureau for about nine years. Before that, Wines was in the LA Times Washington bureau; before that, at a Washington magazine called National Journal, and before that, in Louisville, at the departed and much-lamented Louisville Times.

Robert T. Barnard - 1978-79 - Barnard retired in 1990, after 27 years at The Courier-Journal as various kinds of editor, including assistant managing editor and editorial page editor. Two years after the unexpected death of his wife, Ann, from viral pneumonia, he married Clara Belle Weatherman, whom he had known since 1951 when Barnard got to know her and her late husband, Rom, on the Winston-Salem, NC, Journal. They live in Lexington, Va.

David Nakdimen - 1977-78 - Nakdimen retired from full-time work as a political and government reporter for WAVE-TV in July 1997. He serves on the Journalism alumni board at the University of Kentucky and served four years on the board of Wayside Christian Mission.

Lana Ellis - 1976-77 - Ellis started at The Courier-Journal and Times as fashion editor, then joined the Sunday magazine staff. In 1978, she came to the Dallas Times Herald to create Style, the city's first free-standing fashion section. Since opening her own business, Ellis Editorial Advertising, in 1981, clients have included the Dallas Galleria, Houston Galleria, Dallas Market Center, Marshall Field, JC Penney, and Sam's Club.
Being the first woman to be president of the Louisville chapter especially pleased her father, Hugh Ellis, who was in Sigma Delta Chi at the University of Kentucky.

Bob Johnson - 1974-76 - WHAS radio and TV hired Johnson as a news reporter in December 1958. He was the chapter's delegate to two national conventions. It's his recollection that the Atlanta convention approved the admission of women to SDX or, at least, the issue was on the agenda in some form. "As I recall, I cast the chapter's vote in favor of admitting women."
The Courier-Journal hired Johnson as a reporter in April 1978; in December 1979 he was named the newspaper's political writer, a job he held for nine years. Johnson was subsequently an assistant city editor and an assistant regional editor. He left the paper in April 1997 and is now retired.

Larry Spitzer - 1972-74 - Spitzer spent 37 years at the C-J; the first 23 covering a wide variety of assignments in the newspapers' general circulation area and the final 14 years as photography assignments editor. He retired in 1995. For 40 years, Spitzer has led a program for amateur photographers in conjunction with the Kentucky Department of parks. He serves as chapter secretary.

Ken Rowland - 1970-72 - Rowland was at WLKY-TV as news director and news anchorman when first elected to the presidency. During his first term, he changed jobs, becoming the co-anchor on the 6 p.m. news at WHAS-TV. Rowland stayed at WHAS-TV until l977 when he went back to WLKY-TV as a news anchor. He co-anchored there for nearly 10 years, leaving in November 1986, when he became the Director of Research for Linker Capital Management, a Louisville money management firm, a position he still holds. When WDRB-TV started its one-hour 10 p.m. newscast, he was one of the original reporters.
He worked two jobs until May 1998 when he had surgery. After recovering, Rowland decided that he would give up television reporting for good. He was elected to the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 1997.

Don Bliss - 1968-70 - Bliss joined The Louisville Times in 1956, working as women's editor, editor in charge of world and national news, copy editor, photo editor, page-design editor and business editor. Best known for his coverage of public affairs, Bliss left The Times for a three-month stint as a Kentucky Crime Commission planner, then returned. He owns H & R Block stores in the Seattle, Wash. Area and has maintained his SPJ membership.

*Dean Eagle - 1966-68 - After 27 years with The Louisville Times' sports department, Eagle became sports editor of The Courier-Journal in 1968. After about four years in that post, Eagle suffered a heart attack and died while driving to Louisville from a baseball game in Cincinnati.

Jay Crouse - 1964-66 - A member of Sigma Delta Chi since 1947, Crouse was appointed national deputy director for Region 5 for a one-year term in 1965. At the time of his presidency, Crouse was news director for WHAS radio and TV. In 1968, he was named president of the Radio Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), and president of its foundation the next year. From 1969-71, Crouse served as assistant director/senior consultant to the University of Louisville Urban Studies Center, then later as its consultant for media/governmental relations.
In 1985, he was named executive director of the Louisville/Jefferson County Democratic Party, retiring in 1988. Crouse was a founder, and served as chairman, of the Board Cable Advertising Network, 1980-85.

Bernard Rosenthal - 1963-64 - Rosenthal spent 20 years in advertising and management with The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times. He served as president of a Bingham enterprise in California before joining WHAS, Inc. He was business manager when he left the stations in late 1985, weeks before the Binghams sold them, to become president of an international broadcasting firm near Washington, D.C. He is part owner and first general manager of WYCS-TV, Channel 24, Kentucky's first and only African-American majority-owned television station.
He was recently named the first president of the Louisville Police Athletic League. His Rosenthal Group is active in business and marketing consultancies.

*John Dietrich - 1962-63 - Dietrich was a copy editor and book reviewer for The Louisville Times. At the time of his presidency, Dietrich was manager of the United Press International bureau in Louisville. He served in that capacity until 1965, when he became a copy editor for The Louisville Times.
He retired from the newspaper in 1985.

Bill Small - 1961-62 - Small left Louisville in 1962 to be Washington Bureau Chief of CBS News. In 1974 as Senior Vice President, he was moved to New York to head up newscasts and news gathering. In 1979, he went to NBC as President of News. In 1982, Small became President of United Press International. In 1986, he was given an endowed Professorship in Communications at Fordham University's Graduate School of Business. For a couple of years Small was dean of that school. He retired in 1999.
Presently, he has a "partially failed" retirement. He is Vice Chairman for News and Documentary Emmies at the National Television Academy.

* Sam Adkins - 1959-61 - Adkins was assistant Sunday editor for The Courier-Journal and Louisville Times Co. for more than 30 years, where he also worked as a war correspondent. He was one of the first journalists to accompany troops during the invasion of Normandy. His writing skills also landed him a spot in a journalistic pool that covered the first atomic bomb tests in the Pacific before the end of World War II.
Adkins, who taught journalism at the University of Louisville's University College, had a news analysis program on WHAS radio and was the moderator for a WHAS-TV program that discussed trends in religious thought. After his retirement from the newspaper in the 1970s, Adkins entered the full-time Methodist ministry and pastored churches in Louisville, Owensboro, Hodgenville and Harned, Ky.

Gordon Englehart - 1957-59 - Hired at The Courier-Journal in 1950. After stints as a reporter, night city editor, assistant city editor, and one year in Washington bureau, Englehart took over the C-J Indianapolis bureau in 1960, retired in 1984 (dragged back to Louisville for one year in 1977 as a "national correspondent.") Named a Sagamore of the Wabash by five different Indiana governors. Englehart now spends most mornings on back trails of Eagle Creek Park with his Golden Retriever, Billie.

*Floyd Edwards - 1955-57 - Edwards was known for his column, "Strolling," in The Louisville Times that related the "little" news about Louisvillians. A graduate of Indiana University, Edwards began working for the old Louisville Herald as a reporter in 1922. He moved to the Louisville Herald-Post in 1926, working as its telegraph editor until 1930. In 1931 he was the Louisville bureau manager for International News Service, now United Press International. He went to The Louisville Times in 1934, where his jobs included telegraph editor and assistant managing editor. He retired from his columnist job in December 1969.
Upon his retirement, he said the column that "caused the most commotion" was about a couple who had tamed a turkey but planned to served their pet for Thanksgiving, prompting a flood of protesting letters and phone calls.

*Ed Easterly - 1953-55 - Easterly was bureau chief for The Associated Press in Kentucky and press secretary to two Kentucky governors during a long career in journalism. He also had worked for newspapers in Milwaukee and Chicago and been the publisher of two weekly newspapers at Nicholasville.
Easterly helped establish the Louisville chapter of Sigma Delta Chi, now known as the Society of Professional Journalists, and in 1953 was installed as its first president. He joined the AP in Cincinnati in 1932, transferred to the bureau in Columbus, Ohio, in 1934 and later was appointed state editor there. He was moved to Louisville as bureau chief in 1950 and served five years in that post before resigning to become press secretary to Gov. A.B. ''Happy'' Chandler. Easterly held the same job under Gov. Bert Combs from 1960 to 1963.
Easterly retired in 1974 as vice president for public relations of the Appalachian Regional Hospitals, then became associate editor of the Kentucky Coal Journal in Lexington. He retired from that post in 1980. A native of Knoxville, Tenn., he dropped out of high school in 1928, two months before graduation and began his career. He responded to an advertisement in Editor & Publisher, an industry magazine, and was hired as an editor at the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune.

* Deceased