Brian Williams to receive SMC award this fall

By Joe Brandt

Brian Williams, a 12-time Emmy-winner, will speak at the SMC awards ceremony this fall. | Photo courtesy of Justin Stephens, NBC

Brian Williams, a 12-time Emmy-winner, will speak at the SMC awards ceremony this fall. | Photo courtesy of Justin Stephens, NBC

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams and six alumni will receive honors from the School of Media and Communication this fall, SMC announced Monday.

Williams, who has anchored NBC’s national news program since 2004, will receive the Lew Klein Excellence in the Media Award on Sept. 26. Additionally, six SMC alumni will be inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame.

Among these alumni are musician John Oates, of the duo Hall and Oates, and Tracy Davidson, a reporter and anchor from Philadelphia’s NBC 10.

Williams, a 12-time Emmy-winner, will speak to attendees at a special luncheon held in Mitten Hall.

Proceeds from the luncheon will fund approximately 24 SMC scholarships, according to the school’s press release.  Tickets for the reception and luncheon are currently $150 per person.

Past recipients of the Excellence in the Media Award include CNN’s Anderson Cooper, former “The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg, Today Show host Matt Lauer and Robin Roberts of Good Morning America.

Oates commuted to Temple in the late 1960s and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1970. Oates and his musical partner, Daryl Hall, recorded songs in the WRTI studio, back when the station was student-run.

Davidson joined NBC 10 in 1996 as a morning anchor and received a graduate degree from SMC in 2006.

The other Hall of Fame inductees will be Gerhart “Jerry” Klein, chairman of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia, Larry Margasak, formerly of the Associated Press’ Washington bureau, Claire Smith, news editor at ESPN, and Meredith Avakian-Hardaway, director of communications and marketing at the Philadelphia Bar Association.

Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@temple.edu or on Twitter @JBrandt_TU.