Pulitzer Prize winner reects on time at 'U'

When Mike Vitez arrived on campus as a Michigan Journalism Fellow in the fall of 1994, he chose to take Prof. Frank Beaver's screenwriting class and Eileen Pollack's creative writing class in order to hone his storytelling skills.

Those classes paid off for the 20-year journalism veteran and Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer, who received a 1997 Pulitzer Prize for a series he wrote last fall about dying with dignity.

Vitez returned once again to Ann Arbor on Friday to deliver the University's 12th Annual Graham Hovey Lecture.

Vitez's speech, "One Reporter's View: Storytelling Is Our Salvation," was well received by about 60 former Fellows and local journalists who filed into the Michigan League's Hussey Room.

JOHNATHAN SUMMER/Daily Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Vitez of The Philadelphia Inquirer addresses a crowd of about 60 in the Michigan League on Friday.

Starting with the premise that "anybody could be a front page story," he wrote a five-part series titled, "Final Choices: Seeking the Good Death."

The series chronicled the stories of five elderly patients and examined the important decisions that they and their families make near the end of their lives.

Vitez's successful incorporation of a mixture of storytelling and factual information secured him the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism, an award which Eisendrath described as "the premier showcase for fine writing."

Vitez used part of his speech to point out the University's influence on his writing and to thank professors who helped him re-examine his use of language.

For example, Vitez said the fiction writing class helped him improve his ability to tell stories.

Beaver, who now uses Vitez's series as an introduction to his screenwriting class, said Vitez was "an important catalyst within the class."

"He is a wonderful narrative journalist," Beaver said. "I wasn't at all surprised to hear he won the Pulitzer."

Although the speech was on central campus, a large part of the University community was missing: students.

The Director of the Michigan Journalism Fellows, communication studies Prof. Charles Eisendrath, maintained that the event was well publicized - yet almost no students showed up to hear the speech.

The Hovey speech is named in honor of Graham Hovey, a former member of The New York Times Editorial Board, distinguished foreign affairs reporter and former director of the University's Fellow program from1980-86.

"We aim to bring back a journalist who has performed outstandingly after the Fellowship program, to celebrate the good work they've done," Hovey said. "We like to think it is a reflection of what they learned in their nine months of study at Michigan."

Hovey said Vitez's talent was shown through his ability to deal with a taboo subject in a sympathetic and purposeful way.

"Articles like his that deal with important yet often unspoken issues are important," Hovey said.

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