Cambridge, MA – At a ceremony on Wednesday, May 26, 2021, Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) awarded the Centennial Medal to Marvin Kalb, AM ’53, Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice, Emeritus, Harvard Kennedy School.
The critical importance of truth and ethics in American journalism has never been clearer—and Marvin Kalb, is one of the nation’s greatest standard-bearers of journalistic excellence and integrity. An expert on the impact of media on public policy and politics and founding director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, Kalb began his distinguished career in journalism as the last correspondent personally hired by Edward R. Murrow; he served as chief diplomatic correspondent for the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite and later as moderator for NBC’s Meet the Press. He is currently Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice, Emeritus, at Harvard Kennedy School, and has hosted The Kalb Report, a public broadcasting series on media ethics, for 26 years.
“For Marvin Kalb’s superlative leadership and advocacy for the highest standards of integrity, both as a journalist and as founding director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School,” said Emma Dench, dean of GSAS, “we are proud to award him the 2021 Centennial Medal.”
In addition to Kalb, three other GSAS alumni received the Centennial Medal: Lotte Bailyn, PhD ’56, T Wilson (1953) Professor of Management, Emerita, MIT Sloan School of Management; John Hutchinson, PhD ’63, Abbott and James Lawrence Research Professor of Engineering, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; and Peggy McIntosh ’56, PhD ’67, Senior Research Scientist and former associate director of the Wellesley Centers for Women and founder of the National SEED Project (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity).
The Centennial Medal was first awarded in June 1989 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of GSAS. Each year, Harvard University through GSAS recognizes outstanding alumni whose contributions to knowledge, to their disciplines, to their colleagues, and to society have made a fundamental and lasting impact.
For more information, visit https://gsas.harvard.edu/news/stories/outstanding-achievements.
Senior Associate Director, Strategic Communications, University Development Office
