‘Epitome’ of storytellers chosen for KU national journalism award

Bob Dotson, an NBC News correspondent best known for his long-running series “The American Story with Bob Dotson,” will receive the 2015 William Allen White Foundation National Citation, Kansas University announced Friday.

Dotson, a 1968 graduate of KU’s William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications, is scheduled to accept the award April 23 at KU.

Dotson is known for his stories of “ordinary people doing extraordinary things,” KU said. Those stories have featured people like veterans who honor fallen comrades by washing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., every week, and a high school janitor who didn’t want to give up the job he loved even after winning a $3 million lottery prize.

“Bob Dotson is the epitome of all that a storyteller should be,” Ann M. Brill, dean of journalism, said in a news release. “He finds fascinating subjects, engages the audience, and we come away from his stories feeling we are better for hearing his stories. We are honored to be celebrating an alumnus of the school with the 2015 national citation.”

Dotson will accept the citation and give the William Allen White Day public lecture during the annual ceremony 4 p.m. April 23 in Woodruff Auditorium at the Kansas Union. The event is free and open to the public; a reception and book signing will follow.

Dotson currently lives in New York City.

Since graduating from KU, he worked his way up in the TV world and won literary awards for his books. His third book, “American Story, a Lifetime Search for Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things,” is a New York Times best-seller.

The William Allen White Foundation National Citation has been presented annually since 1950.

Notable past recipients include Cokie Roberts, Leonard Pitts Jr., Paul Steiger, Gerald F. Seib, Candy Crowley, Seymour Hersh, John Carroll, Walter Cronkite, Arthur O. Sulzberger, Helen Thomas, Charles Kuralt, Bernard Shaw, Bob Woodward, Molly Ivins and Gordon Parks.