Yale Bulletin and Calendar

November 15-22, 1999

Volume 28, Number 13

Helen Thomas

Veteran White House correspondent
to give Poynter Lecture

Helen Thomas, the "dean" of White House correspondents and author of two books about her experiences, will visit the campus on Wednesday, Nov. 17, as a guest of the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism.

Thomas will present a lecture titled "Front Row at the White House" at 4 p.m. in the Law School's Levinson Auditorium, 127 Wall St. Earlier that day, at 2 p.m., she will be the guest at a master's tea in Morse College, 99 Tower Pkwy. Both events are free and open to the public.

A reporter for United Press International (UPI) for over a half-century, Thomas has broken many gender barriers and garnered numerous awards.

She began her journalistic career as a "copy girl" for the now-defunct Washington Post, joining UPI in 1943. For 12 years, Thomas arrived at work at 5:30 a.m. to write radio news for the wire service. She later had several beats around the federal government -- including the Departments of Justice and of Health, Education and Welfare, the F.B.I. and Capitol Hill -- before she began covering President-elect John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Thomas went to the White House in 1961 as a member of the UPI team headed by Merriman Smith.

During the years she covered Kennedy, Thomas became the first woman to close a presidential news conference with the traditional, "Thank you, Mr. President."

Since then, Thomas has covered the Watergate, Iran-Contra and Whitewater controversies, as well as every other aspect of the White House and the presidency. She traveled around the world several times with Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton, and reported on every economic summit. She was the only newspaperwoman to travel with Nixon to China during his 1972 breakthrough trip, and she has returned to China many times on subsequent presidential visits.

Thomas was president of the Women's National Press Club in 1959-60 and became the first woman officer of the National Press Club after it opened its doors to women members for the first time in 90 years. In addition, Thomas became the first woman officer of the White House Correspondents Association in its 50-year history and served as its first woman president in 1975-76. Thomas was also the first woman member of the Gridiron Club in its history, and the first woman to be elected as its president.

In 1968, Thomas was named the "Newspaper Woman of Washington" by the American Newspaper Woman's Club, and in 1975, she was named the "Woman of the Year" in communications by Ladies Home Journal. In November of 1976, the World Almanac named Thomas as one of the "25 most influential women in America today."

Her many other honors include the Matrix Award from the Women in Communications group, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women's Media Foundation and numerous honorary degrees -- most recently from Brown University, Michigan State University and George Washington University.

Thomas is the author of "Dateline: White House" and "Front Row at the White House," the latter of which was published in May.

The Poynter Fellowship in Journalism at Yale was established by Nelson Poynter '27. It brings to campus distinguished editors, writers and others who have made significant contributions to their field.

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