In Memoriam
The Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame annually salutes members who have died since the last induction ceremony, in this case, since 2019. In the last three years, six Hall of Fame members have died: Richard Cardwell, Ruth Chin, Jack Howey, Art Levin, Jim Polk and Scott Schurz.
Board member Nelson Price said he was honored to compile this tribute and present it at the induction ceremony April 9, 2022.
Richard “Dick” Cardwell
First and foremost, Richard “Dick” Cardwell was known as Indiana’s staunchest defender of Freedom of the Press.
As the long-time executive director of the Hoosier State Press Association, not only was he the primary advocate for Indiana journalism before the General Assembly, but he was also the primary author of the Open Door Law and other legislation involving the press, government and transparency.
When Cardwell, who had an Indiana University law degree in addition to undergraduate degrees in journalism and government, died in September 2020 at the age of 86, one newspaper columnist told his readers “Your life as a citizen is better because of him.”
Before Cardwell, with his commanding personality, came galloping to the scene, much of the work of the Indiana Legislature, including almost all its committee work, occurred in closed sessions.
He could not tolerate that.
Not only did his advocacy for open government impact Indiana (Cardwell started at the HSPA in 1961 as general counsel), but he also became a national leader in press freedom, testifying before congressional committees.
Cardwell taught communications law at Butler and IUPUI. He was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 1982 and received countless other accolades.
Cardwell was a three-sport varsity athlete growing up in Kokomo. Golf was a primary passion.
He served as president of the Indiana Golf Association, golfed with Arnold Palmer, and was described at his passing by golfing companions, as well as so many other people, as an unforgettable public figure.
Ruth Chin
We lost a true trailblazer in October 2021 with the passing of Ruth Chin, the first woman photographer to cover an Indiana State Basketball Championship in Hinkle Fieldhouse, among many other achievements.
Chin grew up in Muncie, where her father bought her a camera when she was 8 years old.
She remained based in Muncie and was never far from a camera for the rest of her long life.
By all accounts, she was Indiana’s first Chinese American photojournalist, with her work appearing in newspapers beginning in the 1930s.
In the 1950s, Ruth Chin opened a photography studio in Muncie and her work began winning awards as well as appearing in national magazines.
When she was inducted into this hall of fame in 2014, the profile of Chin in the program noted that Chin, who was not even 5-feet-2 –inches, had carried 55 pounds of camera equipment to photograph the state basketball tournament. That was an era long before smart phones.
Few who attended that 2014 induction, when Chin was 90 years old at the time, will forget her rousing acceptance speech that brought down the house. She said she regarded the induction as a “mandate to get back to work.”
Ruth Chin was 97 years old when she died.
Jack Howey
When Jack Howey died in 2020 at age 93, it could have been easy to accuse news accounts of burying the lede. Do you start with the fact that, along with another of our recently deceased Hall of Fame members, he had a hand in drafting Indiana’s Open Door law?
Or with the fact that he had a career of nearly half a century as a publisher, editor, and reporter for Indiana newspapers?
Howey was associated in particular with the Peru Tribune, where he was managing editor for 13 years and publisher for three.
After learning that the Ku Klux Klan planned a rally in Miami County, Howey hid in nearby bushes and wrote down the license plate numbers of the attendees, which he then published.
Long before coming to his adopted town of Peru, he had made a name for himself. At Indiana University, Howey was the first Ernie Pyle Scholar and the editor of the Indiana Daily Student.
Before his long tenure in Peru, Howey was a reporter, then city editor, of the Michigan City News Dispatch.
During his years in Peru, Howey became immersed in state and national journalism organizations. Eventually he served on the National Board of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association. During his long-time involvement with the Hoosier State Press Association, he helped push adoption of Indiana’s Open Door law.
Howey was inducted in the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 1998. By then his son, Brian Howey, had started what is now Howey Politics Indiana.
Howey met his wife of 68 years, Mary Lou, at the Indiana Daily Student.
Art Levin
When Art Levin was in sixth grade, an enthusiastic journalism teacher encouraged him to be the editor of his elementary school newspaper. Perhaps it’s no surprise that Levin went on to become that kind of educator, making an enormous impact at Butler University over 33 years.
“Art’s journalism law class was famous on campus,” a Butler alum wrote when Professor Levin died in December 2020 at age 87.
When he arrived on campus in 1973 to become chairman of Butler’s Journalism Department, there were 40 journalism majors. Twenty-five years later, when he was still at the helm, there were more than 200.
Even while stationed in Japan while serving as a high-speed radio operator in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he taught journalism to military officers.
As a Butler professor, Levin quickly became known for his forceful speaking style and his open door for all his students.
Students have gone on to win Pulitzer Prizes, Emmys, a George Polk award and a National Headliner honor.
Levin was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 2003.
His inspirational high school teacher, by encouraging him, set in motion a passion that never wavered. Levin “paid it forward.”
Jim Polk
Little Oaktown, Indiana, near Vincennes, seems a world away from Watergate.
But a native son of Oaktown, distinguished investigative reporter Jim Polk, won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1974 for his coverage of financial aspects of the Watergate scandal. He was writing for the Washington Sun.
His career involved major, impactful work in both print and broadcast media. It included investigative reports for NBC News about the CIA’s role in flying arms to Nicaragua as part of the Iran-Contra scandal and about the racketeering case against Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.
For CNN, he directed coverage of terrorist bombings and other special investigative reports.
Polk, who was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 1994, was living in Marietta, Georgia, when he died in July 2021 at age 83.
Polk had been a long-time leader of Investigative Reporters and Editors, including serving as the president of its board. He was a riveting speaker at IRE conferences.
His success didn’t surprise classmates at Indiana University, where he managed to hold down a full-time job at the Bloomington Herald-Times as a full-time student.
Before all the investigative reporting that earned him national acclaim, Polk worked at Associated Press Bureaus in Indianapolis and Washington, D.C.
But it all started for him in Oaktown, where he began writing sports stories for the local newspaper as an 8-year-old.
Scott Schurz
Even though Scott Schurz had a statewide impact and was a world traveler, his death in May of 2021 was likely felt nowhere more than in Bloomington, where he lived for 55 years and had been the long-time publisher of the Herald-Times until he semi-retired in 2002.
Also, in Bloomington and Monroe County, Schurz was well-known as a civic leader in community foundations and the Indiana University Foundation.
His impact on journalism organizations was significant. He served two separate stints as president of the Hoosier State Press Association Board and is credited with helping create the association foundation in the mid-1990s to stabilize its finances after a crisis.
But he didn’t have only Bloomington connections. He also served at various times as publisher/editor of the Bedford Times-Mail, the Martinsville Reporter, the Mooresville Times and other newspapers.
At the beginning of his career, Schurz worked at the South Bend Tribune. That newspaper, along with others owned by his family company, Schurz Communications, was sold to Gatehouse Media in 2019.
At news of Schurz’ death at age 85, one of the 2020 Hall of Fame inductees, editor Bob Zaltsberg, was quoted:
“I knew he had my back …. He never, not once, asked me to hold publication of a story. He would say: ‘Just make sure it’s right.’“