Society of the Silurians LIFETIMESilurians Press Club EXCELLENCEACHIEVEMENT IN AWARDDONALDJOURNALISM G.DINNER McNEIL Jr. HonoringTimesAWARDS science Steve and GALA Kroft health Thereporter National speaks Arts onClub The15 Gramercy National ParkArts SouthClub Covid-1915 Gramercy and Park vaccines South Wednesday,Wednesday, October May 15,16, 2019 Drinks: 6 P.M. Dinner: 7:15 P.M. Drinks: January6 P.M. • Dinner: 13, 2020 7:15 P.M. PublishedPublishedPublished by by byThe TheThe Society SilurianSilurians of Pressthe Press Silurians., Club, Club, an an anorganization organization organization Meet old friendsNOON• and award winners [email protected] by Eventbrite or with; ofofof veteranveteran veteran NewNew New York YorkYork CityCity journalistsjournalists foundedfounded inin 19241924 [email protected] Zoom NOVEMBERJANUARYMARCH 2019 2021 2019 ReportingLifetimeFeminism: honors Chappaquiddick for Kalb Brothers BY MORT SHEINMAN Beach on Long Island that featured pho- BY ANTHONY MARRO tographs of vacationers in bathing suits. Instead of covering history in the One man slipped him a $50 bill to make hen Newsday moved out of making, their accustomed preoccupa- Nowsure his daughter’s photographand appeared its Melville plant back in tion, the Brothers Kalb —Bernard and in the next issue. Uncertain what to do, WAugust, most of the pictures Marvin — made a kind of history of Marvin called his older brother, who told on the walls were put up for grabs. Rita their own in December, putting an excla- him to return the money. Ciolli, the editorial page editor, grabbed mation point on two lives of remarkable Then“That,” said Marvin, “was my first les- and sent me one that showed me and Bob journalistic accomplishment. son in Bernie Kalb ethics.” Greene and others standing on the bridge On the afternoon of Dec. 16, before Both Kalbs are native New Yorkers. at Chappaquiddick a few days after Sen. a Zoom audience of some 160 Siluri- They each attended public schools and Ted Kennedy had driven into the tidal ans, family, friends, former colleagues, each is a graduate of City College. They pond, a July 1969 accident that resulted contemporaries and classmates (such worked together at CBS News and at in the death of his passenger, Mary Jo Ko- as this one), the Kalbs became the first NBC News, and collaborated on two pechne. It shows that, like most reporters dual winners of the Silurians’ Lifetime books. For the most part, however, they on the job back then, I was wearing a suit Achievement Award, an honor that goes carved out discrete and distinguished ca- and a tie. A few nights later I was back back more than half a century to 1969 reers. BERNARD KALB on the bridgeMARVIN again, but thisKALB time wearing when Walter Cronkite became its first I first met Marvin in 1950, when I was only my underwear. recipient. a freshman at CCNY and he was a senior. figure. He reminded more than one fel- I dove into the pond and touched bot- lege experience,” Kalb wrote in a 2013 It was an occasion to be savored, filled (Well, we’re both seniors now, super-se- low student of a young Abe Lincoln. As a tom, which wasn’t difficult because the article in The Atlantic, “and it also taught with warmth, affection and, for the many niors actually. Marvin turned 90 last June, 16-year-old freshman, I was in awe. water seemed to be only about ten feet me important lessons in journalism journalists, a reminder of why they were the “baby brother” to Bernard, who’ll be The euphoria over the basketballdeep. I came up and then dove down again helpful many decades later in my cover- drawn to the profession and to princi- 99 in February.). He was the sports editor players’ exploits lasted until the follow- four or five times. Kennedy had said that age of wars and political upheavals.” ples of impartiality and truthfulness that of The Campus, City College’s student ing season, when CCNY was revealed he had tried to rescue Kopechne, but that He warned against being “a cheerlead- kept their work honorable. When Ber- newspaper, and had a press-box view of toA be one ofWOODSTOCK many schools involved in a the current had been too strong. Greene, er with a typewriter,” and said if more nard explained what it was that drove one of the most dramatic sports stories nationwide gambling scandal in which who headed Newsday’s investigations news organizations had used “a dash of him to work as a journalist for 78 years, of that year: the unprecedented dou- players were paid to shave points. The team,skepticism” wanted whento know reporting just how on strong the activ the - he spoke of “a lust in yourself to know ble-championship victory of the school’s episode tarnished everything that hap- currentities of was. government But as a “weman might with ahave Sydney been what is going on.” basketball team in the NCAA and NIT pened earlier and taught Kalb some- MEMOIRGreenstreetable to avoid sort Vietnam of bulk, and he Watergate.”didn’t think In introducing them, Silurians pres- tournaments. I was lucky to be a new kid thing vital to journalism: the need for he wasKalb’s the career right person has been to testa testament it. to ident Michael Serrill lauded them as on his staff, to watch him work and learn. healthyBY JACK skepticism. DEACY bridge on Chappaquiddick Island and havingIt was learned such a thatdark lesson night well. that FollowI kept - “two titans of 20th century journalism” Kalb, a rangy six-footer, full of ener- “For the rest of my life, this basketball killed Mary Joe Kopeckne. During that Marro, left, and photographer Ken Spencer in front of the Harbor View Inn at Martha’s Vineyard in 1969. ing his graduation fromContinued CCNY, on he Page stud 6- and second vice president David Mar- gy and blessed with a deep baritone and scandal wouldn the taint sunny my memory morning of what of memorable year, the Vietnam War raged golick recalled how impressed he was as easy sense of humor, cut an impressive was otherwiseFriday a rich Aug. and 15, rewarding 1969, motel col- on, Nixon was swornContinued in and Sy on HershPage 4 a youngster listening to these “voices of Oowner Jack Besterman and broke the My Lai massacre story. The civilization and sophistication” on CBS I walked up the driveway of the Pine Black Panthers brought a militant new RecallingNews. the Clattering of theMotel in KeysWhite Lake, New York where phase to the Civil Rights movement, the “There was nothing pompous or it meets Route 17B. What we saw Manson murders shook Los Angeles, BY BILL DIEHL Sizing-Up-Trumpand started using a computer toamazed write Sequel hisus. newscasts.As far as our eyes Is could All see, Newin York’s the Stonewall Family riots started a gay off-putting about them,” Margolick said, Recently I took an informal poll of some of my fellow adding that they inspired him to become BY DAVID MARGOLICK leavethe roadway the White was aHouse vast sea once of cars.his lossAll revolution,would be “very, and the very Beatles ugly.” broke up. o many of us Silurians, it is a familiar mem- Silurians about their typewriterabandoned. memories. The Here only are things a moving on And on August 15 upwards of a journalist. few of the responses. was certified, though not without cry- Prognostication is cheap, though, and ory: the clackingAnne Roipheof 100, or (inset) 500, typewriters, and Katie Roiphe the road were the drivers Thereas reporterswere tributes and editorsfrom longtime worked toward t was their two weeksBert Shanas,after the who election, worked ingat the“fraud” New on York the wayDaily out. Yes, he’d box as polite as he is, Clyde has never been CBST anchor Dan Rather, who called the and Clyde Haberman, formerly and Bidenand inpassengers with various who executive orders; one to settle for softballs, even with his deadlines in open newsrooms. The sometimes deafening News for many years, recalled thathad whenabandoned the paper madethem, “I never seen nothing like this noiseKalbs could “a credit be almost to their soothing. heritage” For and some, “a the typewritformidably- the of switch the New from York typewriters Times, to computers,maybe he’d Jimmy go to war Breslin with Iran. But pre- own daughter at the plate. So he quick- BYcredit ANNE to our AND country.” KATIE Charles ROIPHE Sennott, a YorkIasked University. Maggie Haberman, She is the authorvery presently of The dictingall walking just whatslowly the west guy would do was ly pivoted to more titillating stuff, while er itself became a crucial part of the writingMorning process, After: couldn’t Sex, Fear, handle and Feminism,it. He wouldn’t toward go near their a computer destination and before,” he said to me. “All this co-founder of Report for America, which and conspicuouslywould of dictate the Times, his columns to assess to hisimpossible, secretary, even who to would perhaps his foremost understanding, surely, how unlikely it and manyilurian were reluctantAnne Roiphe to give was it up one when The computer Violet Hour , and the forthcoming The five miles away: the fosters local journalism, and Nancy the state of Donaldthen type J. Trump. them into the computer.chronicler, someone who’d followedfor him a concert? was that Maggie Who’s would playing, dish. Kindness, word-processingof the most arrived powerful in the andearly best- 1980s.Power Notebooks. She has also written Woodstock Music and Gibbs,One reluctantformer editor convert of was Time longtime magazine print reporterShe andmade shortWhen work WNEW of her Radio father’s passed since into her history, days in veteranCity Hall.