The Rev. Robert F. Griffin, CSC, Award was established by the Alumni Board in 2003 to recognize outstanding accomplishments or achievements in writing.
Past Recipients
The 2009 Griffin Award was presented to:
Jerry Kammer ’71
As the recipient of the 2009 Rev. Robert Griffin, C.S.C., Award, Jerry Kammer ’71, is honored for his outstanding journalistic achievements. Most recently, Jerry won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for his reporting that disclosed the worst case of bribe taking in the history of Congress and led to the imprisonment of a corrupt lawmaker and war hero.
Jerry got his start in journalism in 1974 as a reporter with the Navajo Times in Window Rock, Ariz. He had gone to the Navajo reservation two years earlier to work as a volunteer teacher and coach at a Catholic school. Jerry’s reporting on the reservation led to a book, The Second Long Walk. It chronicled a land dispute between the Navajo and Hopi Tribes that the federal government sought to resolve by relocating thousands of Navajos from high-desert rangeland east of the Grand Canyon.
After earning a master's degree in American studies at the University of New Mexico, Jerry taught briefly at a UNM branch college. In 1986 he became the Northern Mexico correspondent for The Arizona Republic. There, his work on the human consequences of industrial development along the border was honored with the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.
In 1998, he transferred to Phoenix, where he joined the paper's investigative team. For the next four years, Jerry covered the story of a Phoenix financier, Charles Keating, who became the symbol of the national savings and loan scandal. For his work, he received the National Headliner Award for investigative reporting, the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Reporting, and the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for investigative reporting.
In 2000, Jerry became the Republic's correspondent in Washington, D.C. Two years later, he joined the Copley News Service, which reported for the Copley chain, including its flagship paper The San Diego Union Tribune. There, Jerry specialized in covering immigration and U.S.-Mexico relations.
Along with three Copley colleagues, Jerry authored The Wrong Stuff, a 2007 book about the congressional bribery scandal.
Jerry was born and raised in Baltimore. After graduating from Loyola High School, he enrolled at Notre Dame, where he was an English major. His principal extracurricular activity was the Lacrosse Club, where he was co-captain of the team in 1971.
Past Recipients
2008 Dr. Michael Collins ’87, ’91MA
2007 Barry Lopez ’66, ’68MA
2006 Kenneth L. Woodward '57
2005 Dr. Samuel Hazo '49
2004 Nicholas Sparks '88
