By GARRY HOWE
CHAIRMAN Roger Hall said the quality of the four young print and publishing professionals awarded in the 30th year of the Herb Thomas Memorial Trust, demonstrated that the media industry had a bright and vibrant future.
Mr Hall told those at the presentation dinner at Georgio’s Restaurant last Thursday night that the array of talent on show was fitting for such an important milestone.
“The standard of nominees this year is outstanding,” he said.
“It just goes to show that our media industry is in good hands.”
Grants of $2000 each were handed to RMIT Graphic Technology student Emma Wright, Monash University Professional Communications student Bronte Chaperon and RMIT Journalism students Andrea Yu and Virginia Millen. There was only supposed to be one award in the journalism category, but trustees could not separate the pair and both received grants.
The Herb Thomas Memorial Trust was established in 1984 to perpetuate the memory of the former Gazette editor and proprietor by the Rotary clubs of Pakenham, Berwick and Narre Warren, along with the City of Berwick and Shire of Pakenham (now Casey and Cardinia). Endeavour Hills Rotary became involved in 1992.
Herb Thomas was the son of Gazette founder Albert Edward Thomas and was the second of four generations of the family to manage the media company.
His son Ian Thomas is a trustee, along with Roger Hall (chairman), Mike Tyler (secretary), Terry Williams, George Blenkhorn and Garry Evans.
Paul Thomas, the fourth generation managing director, was interstate on business and could not make the dinner. The family was represented by Ian, his wife and former editor Dorothy, their daughter Kerrie Rodgers and her son Simon, and Ian’s nephew Stuart Barber.
Guest speaker Marcus Kostelac, who won the award back in 2001, has a hand in printing many of the Star News Group papers as production manager of Border Mail Printing in Wodonga.
He gave an insight into his career.
Addressing the crowd, Ian Thomas said the night was not only significant for marking the 30th anniversary of the trust, but the date, 1 May, was also the birthday of his mother Florrie Thomas.
“She would have been 107,” he said.
“Mum was 98 when she died and she was still proofreading the paper at 91.”
Mr Thomas echoed the thoughts of the trust chairman on the quality of the candidates.
“All the awardees spoke and presented so well, that’s why we could not separate two of them,” he said.
“I hope they will come back one day, like Marcus has, to tell us what they have done.”
