Three journalists from Springfield, Chicago and Kansas City will be inducted into the Public Affairs Reporting (PAR) Hall of Fame at the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) on March 6, the school announced recently.
Kansas City Star reporter Scott Canon, Chicago Tribune reporter Michael Hawthorne, and former State Journal-Register editor and reporter Mike Kienzler all graduated from UIS's public affairs program.
Canon, a 1982 alumnus, has covered local and international events and produced investigative pieces at the Star since 1989. He started his journalism career at the Champaign News-Gazette and the Santa Barbara News-Press.
Hawthorne, a 1989 graduate, is an investigative reporter at the Tribune. He and two colleagues were Pulitzer Prize finalists in 2013 for a series on the tobacco and chemical industries’ collusion to minimize safety standards in household furnishings. He has also worked at the Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch, Champaign News-Gazette and Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Kienzler, part of PAR’s first graduating class in 1973, spent close to 40 years with the Journal-Register, the state capital's daily newspaper, mostly overseeing government and election coverage as the metro editor. He retired in 2013, but continues to work on the Illinois State Historical Society Advisory Board.
A reception at 5:30 p.m. will precede the 6:30 p.m. ceremony at the Inn at 835 in Springfield.
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