Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The New York Times and chairman of The New York Times Co., is in Lawrence today to accept the 2003 William Allen White Foundation’s national citation at Kansas University.

Interactive galleryBill Snead/J-W photo

This morning, the fourth-generation Times publisher will spend time with students and faculty at KU’s School of Journalism . He will be honored at a noon luncheon in the Kansas Union Ballroom.

At 1:30 p.m., he will give the William Allen White Day address in Woodruff Auditorium. The speech is free and open to the public.

In 2002, under Sulzberger’s leadership, The New York Times and its staff won seven Pulitzer Prizes, a first for any news organization. In 2000, Sulzberger was named publisher of the year by Editor & Publisher, a top newspaper industry trade publication.

Interactive galleryBill Snead/J-W photoArthur O. Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The New York Times, laughs while working at his desk at the Times building in New York City recently. Sulzberger is the fourth generation publisher of the Times.

Recently The Times made several Fortune magazine lists. It was chosen most admired among publishers and in January made the list of the top 100 companies for which to work.

Sulzberger, 51, graduated from Tufts University in 1974. He worked at the Raleigh (N.C.) Times and reported for The Associated Press in London before joining The New York Times in 1978.

“I was a reporter when Howell Raines entered the Washington bureau of The New York Times,” Sulzberger recalled.

Raines is now Sulzberger’s executive editor.

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After spending two years on the metropolitan desk in New York, Sulzberger worked in other departments of the Times, including advertising sales and production.

“It was a great way to get to know the people, as well as learning the business,” he recalled. “The men and women in leadership positions at the Times are people I grew up with.”

Sulzberger’s father, Arthur O. Sulzberger, received the White citation in 1974. They are the first father-son recipients of the honor, made annually to a journalist who exemplifies the ideals of William Allen White (1868-1944). White was the influential, Pulitzer Prize-winning editor of the Emporia Gazette.

Legendary New York Times reporter, editor and columnist James Reston received the first White citation in 1950. Hedrick Smith, Sulzberger Jr.’s boss at the Times’ Washington bureau, was honored in 1996 at KU.

Other White citation recipients include: Cokie Roberts, Norman Isaacs, Roy A. Roberts, Ben Hibbs, Hodding Carter, Paul Miller, Gardner Cowles, Walter Cronkite, John S. Knight, Otis Chandler, Eugene Patterson, Charles Kuralt and Bob Woodward.

Sulzberger is married to Topeka native Gail Gregg, an artist and journalist. She worked for United Press International and the Congressional Quarterly while she and her husband lived in Washington, D.C. She’s a Kansas State University graduate.

The couple met in Topeka.

“I was visiting my mother, Barbara Grant, on Plass Avenue in Topeka and met Gail, who was literally the girl across the street,” Sulzberger recalled. They were married in 1975 in the back yard of the house of her parents, Tom and Ann Gregg.

Interactive galleryBill Snead/J-W photoSulzberger looks at notes on his desk at his office in New York City while talking on a telephone headset.

The elder Greggs plan to attend the awards luncheon this afternoon.

The Sulzberger’s children attend Brown University. Arthur, 22, is a senior and Annie, 20, is a junior.