Relentless Investigator
Edith (Snyder) Evans Asbury '31 was the subject of a recent New York Times Metro profile 93/11/06) -- not so much for her renowned career in journalism as for her feistiness. In fact, the article is headlined "Sweet She Ain't, and She Has the Stories to Prove It." Interviewer Dan Barry scoffs at the conventional "little old lady" image (she is 95, after all, and wears her gray-white hair in a bun) and focuses on Edith's stories of how she came to be one of the best newspaper reporters in the Big Apple. He dubs her "queen mother of the pointed question," citing her reputation as a "relentless investigator, an astute observer, a role model for women when newsrooms might as well have had MEN engraved on the doors." She began her career at the now-defunct Cincinnati Times-Star, continued with the paper in Knoxville, Tennessee, and reported for fledgling Life magazine, the New York Post, Associated Press, and World Telegram and Sun. In 1952, she went to work for the Times, insisting, Barry says, "that she work as a reporter in the city room, and not in the women’s department." Though she has been retired since 1981, Edith still writes the occasional "self-deprecating essay about her long career."

Distinguished Scholar
Dr. Phyllis Scrocco Zrzavy '82, Western College Program graduate and Professor of Mass Communication at Franklin Pierce College, received the Higher Education Faculty Member Award of The New Hampshire College and University Council at the 12th annual NH Excellence in Education Awards ("ED"ies) in June 2005. Phyllis Zrzavy is a distinguished media scholar who devotes extraordinary attention to making her discipline accessible to each and every one of her students. She was recognized for her "contagious passion for teaching, deep commitment to learning, and genuine devotion to her students and their success." Her exemplary teaching record contributes to her success as an administrator at the departmental, division, and college level. Outside the classroom, Dr. Zrzavy is highly regarded as a campus leader, a collegial good citizen, and as a mentor.