By Bob Allen
Associated Baptist Press will honor veteran Baptist journalist Toby Druin with a lifetime achievement award at a banquet June 21 in conjunction with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly June 20-23 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Druin, 77, has been named third recipient of the Greg Warner Lifetime Achievement Award in Religious Journalism, established in 2009 and named after the first permanent employee of the independent news service formed in 1990, who took early disability retirement in 2008 due to chronic health issues.
Druin will accept the honor at a Friends of ABP Texas barbecue dinner at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, June 21, at Parish Hall in the new Pastoral Building of St. Patrick Cathedral, less than three blocks from the Fort Worth Convention Center, site of the General Assembly.
The program also includes recognition of 2012 “Church Champions,” congregations that have stepped forward to support a free press for Baptists, and formal launch of the Friends of ABP, a new annual fund organization to support core operations of the donor-supported, nonprofit Baptist media outlet.
A native of Amarillo, Texas, Druin worked at newspapers in Plainview, Amarillo, Wichita Falls and Boger, Texas, before attending Baylor University on a journalism scholarship. He joined the Baylor staff as a news writer in 1964 and became director of the school’s news bureau.
After graduating from Baylor with majors in journalism and religion, Druin worked as associate editor of the North Carolina Biblical Recorder from 1966 to 1973 and as editor of news services for the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board from 1973 until 1976.
He was already a veteran Baptist journalist when he became associate editor of the Baptist Standard in Texas in 1976, three years before the outbreak of the Southern Baptist Convention inerrancy controversy, a major story for both denominational and secular media during much of the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1995-96 Druin was the first associate editor to serve as president of the Association of State Baptist Papers, an organization for Baptist newspaper editors dating back to 1895. He was elected 12th editor of the Baptist Standard in 1995, and retired Dec. 31, 1998, after 22 years at the news journal for the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
“Toby Druin led the Baptist Standard with courage, credibility and integrity during a tumultuous time among Southern Baptists,” said David Wilkinson, ABP’s executive director. “He represents the very best of Baptist journalism.”
The Greg Warner Lifetime Achievement Award honors journalists whose body of work has contributed in significant ways to the understanding of religion in America society. It recognizes persons who with courage and integrity have addressed important issues related to matters of faith, whose writing and reporting reflect high standards of journalism, and whose work is consistent with ABP’s mission and values.
Previous recipients are former ABP Executive Editor Greg Warner, who accepted the inaugural award in 2009, and R.G. Puckett, retired editor of the Biblical Recorder and past chairman of the ABP board, in 2011.