The Golden Pica Pole Award winners must have been employed by a Nebraska newspaper for 50 or more years. Nomination forms are sent out in the fall and recipients are recognized at the Annual Nebraska Press Association Convention in April.

For those who don’t know what a pica pole is, it’s a metal ruler used by printers in the composing room to measure type by picas (12 points to the pica, six picas to the inch). And a bit of trivia – way back in the day, the pica pole was pounded against a metal surface in the ritual of honoring an employee leaving the premises for the last time. 

Winners

2019 James “Jim” Dean, Grand Island
2019 James “Jim” Murphy, Omaha, NE
2019 Mary Kay Quinlan, Lincoln, NE
2018 Jack Hartshorn, Scottsbluff
2018 Warren “Gus” Wesche, Wisner
2018 Frank Wooden, Scottsbluff
2017 Irene Barfknecht, Superior
2017 Steve Jordon, Omaha
2017 Jack Schrieber, Coleridge Blade, Wayne Herald, Omaha-World Herald
2013 Kathleen Kauffold, Dodge
2013 Bernice Blecha, Osmond
2012 Joe Skrivan, Bloomfield
2012 Joyce Turpitt, St. Paul
2011 Les Falter, Tilden

2009 Doug Edwards, Hastings
2008 Don Walton, Lincoln
2008 William H. Rischmueller, Wakefield
2008 Henry Bigge, Fullerton
2007 Dean Dorsey, Cozad
2007 Don Russell, Sutton
2007 Art & Audrey French, Stapleton
2007 William Schock, Falls City
2006 Norman Taylor, Elm Creek
2006 Kenneth R. Rhoades, Blair
2006 Warren Baldwin, Plainview
2005 Norman Taylor, Elm Creek
2005 Kenneth Rhoades, Blair
2005 Warren Baldwin, Plainview
2004 Robert J. Pinkerton
2004 Bill Nuckolls, Fairbury
2004 Helen Nelson, Gordon
2004 Zean Carney, Wahoo
2003 Marlin G. Waechter, Stanton
2003 Ted Huettmann, Wisner
2003 R.L. “Butch” Furse, Aurora
2003 Adele Faaborg, Fullerton
2002 Kerry Leggett, Ord
2002 Robert Yost, Coleridge
2002 Glen Doremus, Crete
2001 Alton “Mook” Wilhelms, Stromsburg
2001 Jack Pollock, Ogallala
2000 Donna L. Nerud, Lincoln
2000 Leone Krikac, Ord
2000 Jerry Huse, Norfolk
2000 Len Hoskins, York
2000 William Armagst, David City

1999 Paulina Morton, Tekamah
1999 Lillian Spear, Sutton
1999 Francis Svoboda, Schuyler
1999 Loral Johnson, Imperial
1999 Clarence Hebda, Fullerton
1999 Ken H. Kauffold, Dodge
1999 Warren Kelly, Atkinson
1998 Tom Allan, Omaha
1998 Henry S. Trysla, South Sioux City
1998 George P. Miller, Plattsmouth
1998 C. Bryce Wilkins, Mitchell
1998 Harley G. Lofton, Holdrege
1998 William D. Sand, Friend
1998 J, Alan Cramer, Auburn
1997 Robert McMorris, Omaha
1997 Thelma Schneider, Elkhorn
1997 Emil W. Reutzel, Jr., Norfolk
1996 M. I. Thompson, Wolbach/St. Paul
1995 Lloyd Reeves, Crete
1995 Lee Warneke, Plainview
1995 Blanche Bargen, Superior
1995 H. Dwight Ling, Holdrege
1993 Dorothy Merihew, Hyannis
1993 Bill Ehrett, Fairbury
1993 A. Senseny Newhouser, Wood River
1993 Mildred Heath, Elm Creek/Overton
1993 Albin Blast, Fairbury
1992 Jay Portsche, Broken Bow
1992 Clyde Moore, Fairbury
1992 Eugene Liewer, Osmond
1992 Don Antrobus, Arapahoe & Holbrook
1991 Bill Skrivan, Bloomfield
1991 Bus Bohl, McCook
1991 Hugh Bunnell, Alliance
1991 Leland Liibbe, West Point

1989 Marjorie Schock Loucks, Falls City
1988 Robert J. Crouse, Arthur
1988 Alfred Ray Evans, Callaway