University of North Texas

George Getschow, right, principal lecturer at the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism, will receive a George Bush Presidential Library and Museum Outstanding Educator Award from former First Lady Barbara Bush April 10.

The awards are presented for supporting the enrichment and creativity of students through outstanding dedication, inspiration and encouragement.

Getschow, the writer-in-residence for the annual Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, will receive one of five awards during a ceremony at the library and museum in College Station.

He is being honored for creating the conference’s annual writing competition for high school and community college students ages 14 to 25. Since 2011, students from Texas and across the U.S. have entered biographies about those who have left lasting legacies in their communities or historical narratives — accounts of historical events from those who witnessed them.

The 10 winning students receive free registration, hotel accommodations and meals to the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, which is hosted each July by the Mayborn School’s  Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism. The students’ work is also published on The Dallas Morning News website.

In 2011, Getschow formed a partnership with the Education Department of the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, Biographers International and Big Thought to offer learning programs on literary nonfiction writing.

Getschow has taught at UNT since 2002. He has been writing professionally since 1972. In 1974, he joined the Wall Street Journal where he worked 16 years as a reporter, editor and bureau chief. As chief of the Houston and Dallas bureaus, he directed the newspaper's coverage of the Southwest and trained several reporters in storytelling.

Getschow was a runner up for the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1984 and received the first-place Robert F. Kennedy Award for "distinguished writing" about the underprivileged. He also received first place for best feature series from the National Council for the Advancement of Education Writing. In addition, some of his protégés have won Pulitzer Prizes, had their narratives published in anthologies and written literary nonfiction bestsellers.

He was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2010 and served as a juror in the Feature Writing category for the 2013 Pulitzer Prizes.  

—Nancy Kolsti, News Promotions