Taft Award

In 1981, Dr. Robert Knight, then director of MIJA, nominated Associate Dean William H. Taft of the Missouri School of Journalism for a special award for his continuing and outstanding service to scholastic journalism.

Taft had evaluated more than 10,000 yearbooks for MIJA, thousands of books for National School Yearbook Association; directed two editions of a Newspaper Fund Summer Institute; served as director of Summer Media Workshop; developed a correspondence study version of Journalism 380 “High School Journalism;” plus wrote helpful articles for the MIJA News-gram and spoke at MIJA events. It was decided at that time that the special award would be named the “Taft Award.”

To continue this tradition of recognizing excellence and dedication, we hope you will nominate any person or group giving outstanding service to scholastic journalism and/or to MIJA by completing this online nomination form by Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026.

The honoree and/or the nominator will be invited to prepare a 30-second acceptance video to run at the spring JDay on the MU campus.

Past honorees include:

• 1982 – H. L. Hall, Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood
• 1983 – Ron Clemons, Truman High School, Independence
• 1984 – Earl English, Dean Emeritus, School of Journalism
• 1985 – Helen Brakke-Buel, Jefferson City Senior High School, Jefferson City
• 1986 – UMC Extension Division
• 1987 – Greater St. Louis Association of Black Journalists
• 1988 – Barbie Mankey, School of Journalism
• 1989 – Molly Clemons, then: Palmer Junior High School, Independence
• 1990 – Virginia Woodring, Springfield
• 1991 – Howard Emerson, Hazelwood School District, Florissant
• 1992 – Dr. Robert P. Knight (given posthumously)
• 1993 – Elizabeth Lockhart, Cape Girardeau
• 1994 – Kathy Craghead, Mexico High School, Mexico
• 1995 – Mary Lu Foreman, Kansas City
• 1996 – Sandy Newcomer, Macks Creek High School, Macks Creek
• 1997 – Opal Eckert, Retired
• 1998 – Bill Hankins, Oak Park High School, Kansas City
• 1999 – Dean Mills, Dean, Missouri School of Journalism
• 2000 – Bruce Schneider, Parkway South High School, Chesterfield
• 2001 – Diane Boyle, Parkway Central High School, Chesterfield
• 2002 – Missouri Press Association and Doug Crews, Executive Director
• 2005 – John G. “Jack” Hodgson, Oklahoma State University
• 2006 – Karen Black, Hickman Mills High School, Kansas City
• 2008 – Susan Newburger, Park Hill South High School, Kansas City
• 2009 – John Kelley, Walsworth Publishing
• 2010 – Marc Russell, Lee’s Summit High School, Lee’s Summit
• 2011 – Nancy Freeman, Clayton High School, St. Louis
• 2012 – Minerva Howard, Columbia
• 2015 – Christina Geabhart, Oak Park High School, Kansas City; and Michelle Turner, Washington High School, Washington
• 2016 – Donald Johnson, Webster Groves High School, Webster Groves
• 2017 – Megan Palmer, Park Hill South High School, Riverside
• 2018 – Bob Bergland, Ph.D., journalism professor at Missouri Western State University, St. Joseph
• 2019 – Ben Merithew, Fort Osage High School
• 2020 – Leigh Rogers, Hermann High School
• 2021 – Suzette Herman and Ron Kelley, Missouri School of Journalism
• 2022 – Colonel James “Jim” Craig Dumont, Jostens Yearbook Missouri representative
• 2023 – Nancy Smith, Lafayette High School, Wildwood
• 2024 – Dan Mueller, Varsity Yearbook St. Louis representative
• 2025 – —-
• 2026 – Jamie Munoz, Liberty High School & MIJA Board Member