Longtime journalist and news leader Don E. Carter has been awarded the Dean’s Medal for Leadership Excellence by the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
The Dean’s Medal, the college’s highest honor, was awarded to Carter in tribute of his career of leadership in journalism, including his long-time support for journalism education at the Grady College.
Carter, a Sea island resident and former vice president of Knight Ridder, was a 1938 graduate of Grady. His late wife, Carolyn, was a 1940 Grady graduate.
The Carters established the Don E. Carter and Carolyn McKenzie Carter Chair for Journalism Excellence, a chair held by professor John Greenman.
“Don Carter is a stalwart of journalism excellence and an extraordinary alumnus,” said Charles Davis, dean of Grady College. “We are honored to present the Dean’s Medal, expressing our respect and appreciation for Don Carter’s distinguished career as a journalist and news executive and his decades-long support for Grady College.”
Carter is the past president of the Grady College Alumni Board and recently made an additional cash gift and bequest to endow the mission of excellence of the journalism program at Grady College. The Carter gift provides the college’s first endowment of a departmental mission.
Carter said he is “honored to be a graduate of the Grady College and its strong and dedicated college of journalism and mass communication.”
“In 1936, I convinced my father that studying journalism at the University of Georgia was worth his investment of $500 a year to send me to Athens,” Carter said. “Journalism has provided me with a rewarding career as a journalist and news executive. I am pleased I can support students and faculty to preserve and advance journalism excellence in Grady’s next century.”
The Carters’ gift will be put to work immediately to prepare students to enter prestigious journalism competitions. It will support students on internships in cities where the cost of living is high, and it will bring journalism leaders to campus in the Carters’ names.
The Brunswick News
DONNA STILLINGER