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© St. Petersburg Times, published June 15, 2002
Times national correspondent Stephen Buckley on Friday received the Paul Hansell Distinguished Journalism Award from the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors.
The award is presented each year to a Florida journalist for overall excellence in reporting and writing.
Buckley, 35, won the award for his body of work in 2001 that included the haunting history of Louise Ray and her family in Arcadia; the story of Wytheville, Va., site of one of the nation's worst polio epidemics five decades ago; and an account of spending 24 hours at ground zero in New York.
Buckley joined the Times last year after working 12 years as a reporter and foreign correspondent at the Washington Post.
He received a $1,000 check and a plaque named in honor of Hansell, a former longtime Associated Press bureau chief in Florida.
Times reporters have won the Hansell award in six of the past nine years.