by
Hall of Fame standouts don't compete only on baseball fields, hockey rinks and basketball courts.
Some earn recognition at a Hall of Fame in Cleveland for songwriting and stage performances. Closer to home, another category of professionals are saluted each spring at a Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame ceremony at MSU.
Word about the Class of 2017 trickles out on social media before the official announcement. These five veterans of the news business, listed alphabetically, earn tributes and spots on stage at the East Lansing induction dinner April 9:
► Patricia Anstett: A medical writer with a 40-year newspaper career in Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Detroit, her hometown. She was at the Free Press for 22 years, retiring in September 2011. The Hall of Fame cites her coverage of mammography improvements in Michigan, breast cancer advances globally and investigative reporting that led to the removal of a University of Michigan chief urologist for serious expense account violations.
She wrote a 2016 hardcover book, "Breast Cancer Surgery and Reconstruction: What’s Right for You.” She's a 1969 MSU graduate who has been a freelancer since 2012 from Grosse Pointe Woods, where she lives with her husband, journalist Tim Kiska.
► Stephen Cain: A 75-year-old retired reporter and editor whose nearly four decades at five Michigan newspaper include long stints at The Detroit News and Ann Arbor News. He did investigative reporting while working in a hospital’s emergency room, driving an ambulance, posing as a medication buyer outside a methadone clinic and pretending to be committed as a Northville State Hospital mental patient. That latter project spurred government inquiries and reforms.
Cain and his wife, Pat, divide their time between a downtown Ann Arbor condo and a restored cabin in the southern Appalachian mountains.
► John Gallagher: Author and Free Press writer since 1987, specializing in development, architecture and urban affairs. Gallagher and a former colleague, Nathan Bomey, creeated a 2013 project titled "How Detroit Went Broke," which explored reasons behind the city's 60-year slide into insolvency.
Among his books are a biography of architect Minoru Yamasaki and three works about urban development, including “Reimagining Detroit: Opportunities for Redefining an American City” (published in 2010).
► David Gilkey: A Free Press photographer and video editor from 1996-2007, he was killed last June while working for National Public Radio. Gilkey was traveling with an Afghan army unit when the convoy was hit by rocket-propelled shells. Gilkey, 50, covered the war on terrorism since the 2001 terrorist attacks and made numerous trips to Iraq and Afghanistan.
When the Iraq war began, he was embedded with the first troops to invade. With reporter Joe Swickard, he earned a 2007 national Emmy award for a Freep video series, "Band of Brothers," about Michigan Marine reservists in Iraq. In 2004, he was named Photographer of the Year by the Michigan Press Photographers Association. "David was one of the most intense journalists I've ever met," says Robert Huschka, Free Press executive editor. "He was committed to telling human stories -- even when it meant putting his own life in harm's way.”
► Mary Kramer: Group publisher at Crain's Communications, she was publisher and editor at Crain's Detroit Business until passing the reins to Ron Fournier at the start of this year. "After 28 years, it's time to allow a new generation of leadership to take over," she wrote. Kramer recently joined nearly 20 Metro Detroit executives on a trip to Israel and filed eight blog posts on their "Michigan cyber mission."
She earned an arts and media degree in 1979 from Grand Valley State University, where she is a trustee. Her career includes reporting and editing roles at the Kalamazoo Gazette, Grand Rapids Press, Ann Arbor News, Greenwich Time in Connecticut and Buffalo Courier-Express in New York. She joined Crain's Detroit Business in 1989 and in 1990 was named associate publisher. In 1994, Kramer was named a vice president of the parent firm, and in 2005 she was named publisher.
In 2003, she became the first woman elected president of the Detroit Athletic Club, which had been all-mall until 1986. (Kramer joined six years later.) In 2008, she received an Eastern Michigan University master's degree in integrated marketing communications.
The induction dinner
