NIU’s department of journalism has announced its 1991 Illinois Journalist of the Year.

Clarence Page, nationally known columnist and editorial board member for the Chicago Tribune, will receive a plaque and monetary award at the journalism department’s annual banquet at 6:30 p.m., April 19, in the Holmes Student Center’s Blackhawk Room.

Page became the first black newspaper columnist to win a Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1989. He writes a column that appears in the Tribune regularly and is syndicated nationally by Tribune Media Services.

The announcement was made Thursday by Donald Brod, NIU professor and journalism department chair.

“He’s a well-rounded journalist and an excellent one,” Brod said. “He got considerable support from the judges,” he said.

The winner is chosen by a committee of journalism students and faculty.

NIU’s journalism department has honored an Illinois journalist for his or her contributions since 1972 when Mike Royko, then with the Chicago Daily News and currently with the Chicago Tribune, was named the first Illinois Journalist of the Year.

All the journalists that have been named have seemed pleased at being named, Brod said. While NIU’s award doesn’t compare to Page’s Pulitzer Prize, it’s just another bit of recognition for the work he has done, he said.

The giving of the award helps make the department visible, he said. It also helps the students by giving them an indication of good role models showing what good journalists can do.

Along with receiving his plaque and $250, Page will make a speech and present a $1,000 Illinois Journalist of the Year scholarship to an NIU journalism student in Page’s name at the banquet.

“It’s tradition that the winner comes to the banquet,” Brod said.

Page last lectured at NIU on March 2, 1990. Tickets for this year’s journalism banquet are $10 for students, $12 for non-students. For reservations call 753-1925.