LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR OBITUARY WRITING

Gerry Hostetler, who retired last summer from The Charlotte Observer, served as local host of and a featured speaker at the 2009 Society of Professional Obituary Writers Convention in Charlotte, N.C.

In her talk about how she rose from newsroom obits clerk to obits columnist - possibly the first obits columnist in the United States - she spoke repeatedly of being inspired by Jim Nicholson, the first recipient of a SPOW Lifetime Achievement Award (2008).

The SPOW Awards luncheon at the Charlotte convention ended April 25, 2009, with the organization presenting Gerry its 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award.

GAYLE RONAN SIMS AWARD

SPOW's first special award - the Gayle Ronan Sims Award for Excellence, Professionalism and Spirit - was unveiled in Charlotte with Gayle Ronan Sims, who wrote obits for the Philadelphia Inquirer for several years, as its first recipient.

This special award - too special to be given out annually - was created several weeks before Gayle had lung transplant surgery. SPOW established the award to honor Gayle's resolve to continue writing obits from home - tethered to an oxygen tank - after a painful respiratory condition prohibited her from working at the Inky office.

In his April 17, 2009, posting on the Washington Post's Post Mortem blog in which he announced that Gayle had died of post-surgical complications the night before at age 61, Adam Bernstein wrote that Gayle "would take four hours to do what most of us could in 10 minutes. She was extremely sympathetic, with a soft and soothing voice that made probing questions seem as gentle as an invitation to have another scoop of sugar in your coffee."

He added: "To Gayle, each new story seemed something more. -- an opportunity to meet a new friend."

Gayle also went out of her way to enhance her subjects' final sendoffs by creating slideshows and locating video and audio to make their obits come alive.

She was determined to share what she had learned about multimedia presentation of obits with her fellow obit writers.

Gayle had volunteered to serve as local host for and conduct a multimedia workshop session at the next SPOW convention, which will be held in Philadelphia, Pa., April 22-24, 2010. We plan to move forward with her vision.

JURIED AWARDS

Ron Csillag, a freelance writer from Toronto, Ontario, who pens obits for The Globe and Mail, took home two of the five juried awards. He won awards for Best Body of Work and Best Obituary for an Average Joe with his obit for poet Eric Layman.

Holly Crenshaw of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution earned top honors in the Best Obituary for a Well-Known Figure category with her obit for pianist/homemaker Dorothy Myers.

Dick Russ of WKYC-TV in Cleveland, Ohio, won Best Obituary honors for Broadcast Media with his obit for Cleveland Indians pitcher and announcer Herb Score.

The Best Online Obituary winner was Kevin Nance for an obituary titled "Don't Tell Chuck" - about Charleton Heston - which was published in Obit Magazine.

PEOPLE'S PICKS

Also announced at the convention were winners of the just-for-fun People's Picks, an online poll in which anyone can select favorites from among the official SPOW Awards finalists. The poll results had no bearing on the juried awards.

The People's Picks are:

Body of Work: Tom Hawthorn, Globe and Mail;

Well-Known Figure: Sandra Martin, Globe and Mail, Richard Monette;

Average Joe: Gayle Ronan Sims, Philadelphia Inquirer,F. Culver, 100;

Online: Judy Bachrach, Obit Magazine, Yves St. Laurent;

Broadcast: Dick Russ, WKYC-TV, Herb Score.

WINNING OBITS

Click the Obituary Forum link in the menu bar at the top of the page or go directly to And the winners are . . . . for links to the winning obits.