Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist, David Barstow, will deliver Gould’s Commencement Address on June 2, 2018.
Bethel, Maine – Gould Academy is proud to announce that David Barstow, senior writer at the New York Times and three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner, will be the featured speaker during their Commencement exercises on Saturday, June 2, 2018.
“David is a wonderful example of someone who lives the Gould mission – a life of purpose, action, excellence, and compassion,” says Matt Ruby, Head of School. “His work has often focused on shining light in the shadows. In an age when the term ‘fake news’ has regrettably become part of the lexicon, and journalism itself is having to defend its credibility, Gould is proud to welcome one of the most decorated and respected journalists working today.”
A native of Concord, Massachusetts, Barstow attended Northwestern University and began his career with the Rochester Times-Union in New York and the Green Bay Press-Gazette in Wisconsin. While at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, Barstow was the finalist for three Pulitzer Prizes. In 1999, he moved to the New York Times where he has become one of the country’s leading investigative journalists.
“Because of family connections to Bethel — and my decades of skiing at Wildcat Mountain — I’ve had the opportunity over the years to meet some of Gould’s incredible students and faculty,” says Barstow. “So I’m both honored and excited by this invitation to speak at Gould’s commencement.”
In 2004, Barstow and Lowell Bergman won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for a series of articles that exposed employers whose violation of basic safety rules led to the injury or death of hundreds of American workers. Five years later, Barstow won his second Pulitzer for “Message Machine: Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand” which uncovered the Pentagon’s use of retired military personnel to influence news coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2013, Barstow again won, along with Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab, the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for multiple reports on how Wal-Mart used bribery to fuel its rapid growth in Mexico.
Lee C. Bollinger, President of Columbia University (left), presents David Barstow with the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2009. © 2018 The Pulitzer Prizes
Barstow has also been the lead byline on several other major stories, including an article that profiled the last hours of those aboard the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig. That article was adapted for the screen and became the feature film “Deepwater Horizon.”
Barstow is also the recipient of three Polk Awards, the Peabody Award, the Goldsmith Prize, the Alfred I. duPont Silver Baton, the Bartlett and Steele Gold Medal, a Loeb Award, the Sidney Hillman Award, the Daniel Pearl Award for Investigative Reporting, two Sigma Delta Chi awards for distinguished service, the Mirror Award, an Overseas Press Club Citation, and two Society of American Business Editors and Writers awards.
In 2010, Northwestern University honored him with a Distinguished Alumni Award and he was inducted into the Hall of Achievement at the university’s Medill School of Journalism in 2015.
Gould Academy’s 2018 Commencement takes place on June 2 at 10:00 AM on Alumni Field.
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