The Milwaukee Press Club will present its 2006 Sacred Cat Award for outstanding achievement in journalism to veteran television news anchor Aaron Brown at the club’s annual Gridiron Awards Dinner on Saturday, April 29. The club also announced it will present its annual Headliner Award to Sister Joel Read, the retired president of Alverno College who has been a pioneer in education and has helped thousands of Milwaukee-area women launch successful careers.
Brown was the anchor and managing editor of Newsnight on CNN from 2001 until last November. He is best known for his on-site reporting in New York on the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Brown’s anchor work during 9-11 earned him the Edward R. Murrow Award in journalism.
The Sacred Cat Award is named after the Milwaukee Press Club’s mascot, Anubis, the mummified cat, and recognizes excellence in journalism at the national level. Previous Sacred Cat Award winners have included Walter Cronkite, Peter Arnett, Helen Thomas, Irv Kupcinet, Louis Rukeyser, Malcom Forbes, Ted Turner, Art Buchwald and Jim Miklaszewski.
The Sacred Cat Award is presented each spring at the Gridiron Dinner, which also honors winners of the club’s Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism competition.
A highlight of this year’s Gridiron Awards Dinner will be the presentation of the Headliner Award to Read. Read is a member of the School Sisters of St. Francis. She served for thirty-five years (1968-2003) as president of Alverno College, a women’s liberal arts college located in Milwaukee.
The Milwaukee Press Club’s Gridiron Awards Dinner will take place Saturday, April 29, at the Radisson Mayfair Hotel, 2303 N. Mayfair Road, in Wauwatosa. The public is invited to attend the Gridiron Awards Dinner, but reservations are required. Additional information about the event is available at www.milwaukeepressclub.org or by contacting Gloria Gappa-Grundman at milwaukeepressclub@gmail.com or (414) 588-9571.
