BANGOR — The Maine Press Association will induct three new members into its Hall of Fame at its annual meeting and conference, set for Saturday, Oct. 17, at the Hilton Garden Inn.
Inductees include Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram writer and columnist Bill Nemitz, Bob Kalish, formerly of The Times Record in Brunswick, and Lou Ureneck, who’s career included stints with the Press Herald, and the Evening Express in Portland and with the Maine Sunday Telegram.
Both Nemitz and Ureneck have previously been honored by MPA as Maine’s Journalist of the Year.
Kalish’s career included covering Hollywood for Daily Variety, serving as a war correspondent in Thailand during Vietnam, and working in television and radio in Chicago. At the Record, he drove hard-hitting coverage of the Maine Yankee Atomic Power Plant and the Brunswick Naval Air Station. Along the way he mentored multiple generations of young journalists including several that went to earn key journalism fellowships or be honored as Journalist of the Year.
In retirement, he continues to write for newspapers including essays published in The Boston Globe.
Bill Nemitz began his career in Maine journalism in 1977 as a reporter for the Morning Sentinel in Waterville. He moved to Portland in 1983, working as a reporter for the Evening Express before moving up to positions as city editor and sports editor for the Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram. A past president of MPA, Nemitz began writing a column that made him one of Maine’s best-known journalists in 1995.
He reported from Northern Ireland at the end of the Troubles, from Manhattan in the aftermath of 9/11, from the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, from Haiti after its destructive earthquake and from Boston in the hours after the marathon bombing.
Four times, Nemitz went to the Middle East and embedded with members of the Maine Army National Guard.
A native of New Jersey and a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, Lou Ureneck got his feet wet during a brief stint at the Providence Journal before coming to Maine in 1974 to begin his career at the Gannett Papers in Portland, including the Press Herald, the Evening Express and the Maine Sunday Telegram.
After leaving Maine in the mid-90s, Ureneck became editor-in-residence at the Nieman Foundation at Harvard and served as page-one editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer before becoming a professor at the Boston University’s School of Journalism.
Ureneck has written three books, including a memoir about building a cabin in the Maine wilderness. His latest book, “The Great Fire,” is an account of the post-World War I destruction of the Turkish city of Smyrna and the systematic killing of 3 million Christians.
The official Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held at a luncheon during the conference on Oct. 17 at 12:30 p.m. Tickets are available by contacting MPA Executive Director Diane Norton at mainepressmail@gmail.com or call 207-691-0131.
