The president and CEO of The Associated Press is scheduled to visit Kansas University on Friday to accept the William Allen White Foundation national citation.

Tom Curley is set to deliver a public speech at 1:30 p.m. in Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union.

Curley, in a recent phone interview, said he was humbled to receive the award, particularly because it was named after White, whom Curley called one of the great journalists in history.

He said he looked forward to visiting the KU campus.

“There have been many KU graduates who have made me look good in my career,” Curley said, referencing several graduates of the journalism school working for the AP.

He said he intended to speak about the role of the First Amendment on the battlefield — a particularly pertinent topic given expected upcoming events, he said.

“Of course this is an important tradition for us, and Afghanistan is looming,” Curley said. “Getting the correct information on Afghanistan is a big concern.”

Before joining the AP, Curley served as president and publisher of USA Today and as a senior vice president of Gannett, the company that owns the national newspaper.

Ann Brill, dean of the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at KU, said Curley was a nationally known journalist who embodied the passion and vision of William Allen White.

“Tom Curley was the nominee elected by the trustees” of the William Allen White Foundation, Brill said. “And I think it’s very well-deserved.”

White was the nationally known publisher of the Emporia Gazette, and published the famous editorial “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” He died in 1944.

Previous recipients of the citation include Washington Post reporter and editor Bob Woodward, syndicated columnist Molly Ivins and television news anchor Walter Cronkite.