Bob St. John
University of North Texas
Bob St. John spent more than 35 years as a feature columnist for the Dallas Morning News and wrote more than 5,000 columns before retiring in 2000. In 1982 he was named Outstanding Journalist by the journalism department at UNT, in 1986 was chosen for the Journalism’s Hall of Honor and received the university’s Distinguished Alumnus Award and in 1990 cited as an Outstanding Centennial Alumnus of the College of Arts and Science. He has worked for the San Angelo Standard-Times, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Austin American-Statesman and Dallas Morning News and covered sports including the Southwest Conference and the Dallas Cowboys form the Ice Bowl in 1967 to the Super Bowl in 1978. He has won more than 30 first place awards including Katie Awards, Associated Press Managing Editors Association, Texas UPI Editors Association, the Pro Football Writers Association of American and Has published 14 books and written magazine stories for state and national magazines. He received a Special Award from The Headliners Club for “A Portrait of Basketball Coach Doc Hayes” in the Dallas Morning News. The Headliners called his story an example of sports writing at its most sensitive and of sports writing at its literate best.” After leaving sports, he became a state columnist and later a columnist on the front page of the Metro Section of the Dallas Morning News.
David Leeson
Abilene Christian University
Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist David Leeson began his career at the Abilene Reporter-News in 1977. In 1982 he moved to New Orleans as a staff photographer for the Times-Picayune and joined the photo staff of the Dallas Morning News in 1984 where he remained until 2008. His assignments for newspapers took him to more than 60 countries and numerous world conflicts. He owns Proto Films, a video production company specializing in documentary films, He was a finalist for the Pulitzer three times prior to winning the award in 2004 along with colleague Cheryl Diaz Meyer for photographs made in 2003 while on the front lines during the invasion of Iraq. He has also won two Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards and numerous regional, state and national awards. In the fall of 2000, he began shooting video for the Dallas Morning News making him the first staff photographer in the nation shooting video full-time for a newspaper. His documentary War Stories (2003) won a National Headliners Award, a national Edward R. Murrow Award and a regional Emmy Award for best television documentary and Dust to Dust (2004) was named a finalist for best short film at the USA Film Festival. He won a second Emmy in 2007 as producer/editor of combat footage from Afghanistan. In 2006, he was named Innovator of the Year in Photojournalism by American photo Magazine for his work using frame grabs for newspaper daily still assignments. His efforts have culminated in the growing trend bv newspapers to use existing photo staff, transitioned to high definition video cameras, to obtain both video and stills (frame grabs) from a single assignment.