Omaha Press Club honors 2021 winners

Friday, October 15, 2021 - 7:00am

On Sept.18, 2021, the Omaha Press Club inducted professor emeritus Trina Creighton into the Omaha Press Club Hall of Fame.

The other inductees were KETV veteran and longtime CBS and CNN journalist Malcolm Adams, former Omaha World-Herald executive Chris Christen, World-Herald reporter Henry Cordes, KETV veteran Doug Parrott and two posthumous honorees, Susan Eustice of the Salvation Army public relations office and WWII World-Herald correspondent Lawrence Youngman.

On Sept. 19, 2021, the winners of the 2021-2022 academic scholarship program were honored. The following College of Journalism and Mass Communications students were awarded scholarships for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Kirsten Wandrey will receive the Paul N. Williams Scholarship. The scholarship recognizes Paul N. Williams, a dedicated journalist. His 27 years as a newspaperman culminated in a share of the first Pulitzer Prize ever awarded to a weekly newspaper, The Sun Newspapers of Omaha. Wandrey is a junior journalism major from Omaha.

Abby Ostdiek will receive the John Davis Scholarship. In 1974, the Davis scholarship was established in honor of First National Bank executive John F. Davis, who helped establish the Omaha Press Club atop the bank building at 16th and Dodge streets. Ostdiek is a senior advertising and public relations and graphic design double major from Aurora. 

Emma Krab will receive the Stan Bond Scholarship. Stan Bond was KETV’s first field engineer, pioneering live broadcasting from remote story locations for the newsroom in which he was a full newsgathering participant. A past president of the Omaha Press Club and trustee of the Omaha Press Club Foundation, Bond received the Distinguished Club Member Award in 2001. Krab is a junior journalism and English double major from Ogallala. 

Alyssa Johnson will receive the Panko-Robert’s/Presidents Memorial Scholarship. The oldest Omaha Press Club Scholarship was first presented in 1957 in memory of Omaha World-Herald reporter Walter Panko. More than a decade later, the name of KMTV News Director Jim Roberts was added, and the award now honors all past presidents of the Omaha Press Club and Omaha Press Club Foundation. Johnson is a junior advertising and public relations and journalism double major from Lincoln. 

Chris Stoehr will receive the Senator Edward Zorinsky Memorial Scholarship for Graduate Study. The family of Senator Edward Zorinsky established this scholarship in memory of the late U.S. senator and former mayor of Omaha, who was a great friend of the Omaha Press Club. Stoehr received his bachelor's degree in journalism from the college in 2020, and Stoehr is now pursuing a Master of Arts in journalism and mass communications with a specialization in professional journalism. 

For more than half a century, the Omaha Press Club and Omaha Press Club Foundation have awarded journalism scholarships to the most deserving students at Creighton University, the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Trina Creighton Headshot
Trina Creighton, associate professor emeritus
Kirsten Wandrey Headshot
Kirsten Wandrey
Abby Ostdiek Headshot
Abby Ostdiek
Emma Krab Headshot
Emma Krab
Alyssa Johnson Headshot
Alyssa Johnson
Chris Stoehr Headshot
Chris Stoehr