Columbia Star

1963        Celebrating 60 Years      2023

Star writers win Bob Ford Excellence Awards





Winners of The Columbia Star’s Bob Ford Excellence Award are Julia Rogers Hook (l) and Warren (Pinky) McInnis Hughes. Seated between them is Officer Donovan Roche who was on security duty at Villa Tronco where the awards were presented. Officer Roche is the grandson of Carmella and Joe Roche and the great grandson of Henry and Carmella Tronco Martin.

Winners of The Columbia Star’s Bob Ford Excellence Award are Julia Rogers Hook (l) and Warren (Pinky) McInnis Hughes. Seated between them is Officer Donovan Roche who was on security duty at Villa Tronco where the awards were presented. Officer Roche is the grandson of Carmella and Joe Roche and the great grandson of Henry and Carmella Tronco Martin.

For the past two years, the staff and writers of The Columbia Star have honored the late Bob Ford by presenting a writer with the Bob Ford Excellence Award. On June 6, a luncheon was held at Villa Tronco, 1213 Blanding Street, to remember Bob and to present the awards. Warner Mont-gomery gave an overview of Bob’s accomplishments before the presentation of the awards.

Bob started writing a weekly column “Call the Cops” for The Columbia Star when he was the public information officer for Sheriff James Metts. He continued doing this for over 20 years. He also wrote the column for 11 other weekly newspapers. Bob was multi-talented. He was a corpsman at a U.S. Navy Hospital, a broadcaster, photographer, and journalist. He also was a television personality, a puppeteer, and a radio news director. Bob died June 19, 2011.

The criteria for winning the award is humor and excellence, two things always present in Bob’s columns. The judges for the award were Betsy Ford, Bob’s widow; Myles Beck; and Lisa Sisk. This year, the judges found two articles deserving of the award: “To the Funny Farm” by Julia Rogers Hook and “Sailing into the Sunset” by Warren M. Hughes.


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