PRINCETON—Chip Hutcheson, Western Recorder board member and retired Princeton Times Leader publisher, received the coveted Amos Award during a community retirement service. The award will be officially presented to Hutcheson at the National Newspaper Association Annual Convention on Oct. 5-7 in Tulsa, Ok.

Hutcheson, a member at Southside Baptist Church in Princeton for 41 years and a deacon, has served on Western Recorder’s board of trustees for about 12 years. He recently retired as publisher at the Times Leader after more than 25 years. He has been working in the newspaper industry since the early 1970s.

Hutcheson is the second Kentuckian since 1994 to receive the prestigious award, following past Kentucky Press Association President Max Heath.

The Amos Award, established in 1936, was created by E.C. Amos, publisher of the Sidney Daily News, to honor his father, James Amos, a pioneer of Ohio journalism. It remains, along with the McKinney awards, one of the highest honors awarded to retired and working newspapermen and women.

“A lot of times you see things coming, but I never saw that coming,” Hutcheson said of the award. “The people who have won that before me have been such incredible people with so many accomplishments.”

Hutcheson continued, “I don’t feel like I’m really in that class, but I’m extremely grateful for the honor that they have given me.” (WR)