Trinity University scholarship named for 2 late journalists
October 14, 2007 - Posted in Education News, ScholarshipTwo veteran San Antonio journalists are the namesakes for a new Trinity University scholarship fund, part of the university’s $200 million capital campaign.
The Kemper Diehl and James McCrory Scholarship Endowment fund honors the late political reporters, both of whom worked for the San Antonio Express-News and the defunct San Antonio Light. The fund will provide scholarship awards for Trinity students with an interest in political science and journalism.
“Diehl and McCrory were unique treasures on the San Antonio political scene,” U.S. District Court Judge James R. Nowlinsaid in a news release announcing the scholarship fund. “This scholarship at Trinity is intended to keep their memory alive in journalistic pursuits and foster political openness in a new generation.”
The scholarship fund was Nowlin’s idea, and he is a contributor. The university plans to endow the fund with $100,000, which should yield about $4,500 a year for scholarships, according to Gaylon Greger, Trinity’s director of planned giving.
Sterlin Holmesly, a former managing editor and editorial director at the Express-News, said hopefully the endowed scholarship in the pair’s names would motivate future journalists.
“I worked with Kemper and Jim, and they were two of the finest reporters I knew,” Holmesly said. “They had a deep understanding of Bexar County’s complex and sometimes wicked politics.”
Former San Antonio Express-News Publisher and Editor Charles O. Kilpatrick said hiring the two reporters in the ’50s was one of the best things he ever did.
“They both strived for excellence and accuracy, I never knew either one to make a mistake,” Kilpatrick said. “They both were proud of their work.”
Diehl began his career in 1939 at the San Antonio Light and moved to the San Antonio Express-News in 1964, where he was a political writer and columnist. He was, perhaps, best known for his 1985 biography of former Mayor Henry Cisneros,co-written with Jan Jarboe Russell, also a former Express-News journalist. He died in 2000.
McCrory, described as dapper with his eye patch and three-piece suits, covered every president from Harry Truman to the first George Bush. He lost an eye to a German land mine during World War II. He joined the Light staff in 1948 and the Express-News in 1959, where he covered politics for three decades. McCrory died in 2005.