DETROIT -- Wayne State University's Department of Communication will honor recently retired Detroit Free Press publisher, Heath Meriwether, with the 2004 Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Award.

The presentation will be the highlight of an evening program at "The Max" -- the new Max M. Fisher Music Center on Saturday, March 13.

The award honors Detroit native Helen Thomas, WSU '42, the first woman chief of UPI's White House bureau and a current columnist for Hearst News Service. Helen Thomas, one of journalism's living legends, has covered nine presidents, beginning with to the Kennedy administration. She was a trailblazer for women and journalists of Arab descent, and the award was established to recognize her leadership role in promoting diversity in the media and the issues of race in America.

"Helen Thomas and Heath Meriwether have been role models for excellence in journalism, said Ben Burns, WSU journalism professor and chair of the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Awards committee.

"They have both been good friends of Wayne State's journalism program. Heath has been instrumental in raising thousands of dollars to help our students."

Helen Thomas's loyalty goes back even further.

"Whenever anyone asks me where I am from, I say Detroit. And I am proud of having gone to Wayne State. It is my school," Thomas said.

"Helen Thomas always has represented what is best about our profession, the pursuit of excellence and diversity," Meriwether said. "So it is indeed an honor to be recognized with an award in her honor, and one that furthers something so important to journalism, the Free Press and Wayne State."

Meriwether is a native of Columbia, Missouri. His father, Nelson Heath Meriwether, operated a printing business, Artcraft Press, for 33 years and wrote "The Meriwethers and Their Connections," in 1964.

Heath Meriwether earned degrees in history and journalism from the University of Missouri in 1966; he studied at Harvard, earning a Masters of Arts in Teaching (MAT) in 1967. In 1980, he received a Stanford University Professional Journalism Fellowship; in 1997, he completed the Advanced Executive Program at Northwestern University's Newspaper Management Center.

Meriwether began his career as a journalist in 1970 at The Miami Herald, starting as a general assignment reporter. He moved up the ranks to editor, executive city editor, to assistant managing editor for news and managing editor. He was named executive editor in 1983. Over the next four years, The Herald earned four Pulitzer Prizes.

He came to Detroit in 1987, as executive editor of the Detroit Free Press. Under his leadership, the paper won two Pulitzers for photography. Meriwether was named publisher of the Detroit Free Press in January 1996, assuming responsibility for the news and business operations of one of the nation's largest daily newspapers. While publisher, Meriwether began serving on a number of nonprofit boards. He co-chaired Michigan's Ready to Succeed Partnership, a coalition of statewide leaders devoted to raising awareness of and services for Michigan's youngest and most vulnerable residents, children from bi1rth to age five.

He was on the board of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, dedicated to the economic and environmental revitalization of Detroit's greatest natural resource, the Detroit River. He serves on the board of the Henry Ford Health System; the Children's Hospital of Michigan; and Cyberstate.org, a group dedicated to giving all citizens of Michigan access to technology.

His national board memberships are the Rails to Trails Conservancy, and the American Press Institute.

He retired in December and is currently an editorial consultant for Knight-Ridder newspapers, owner of the Free Press.

He and his wife, Pat, have two children, Graham, 24, and Elizabeth, 22. The Meriwethers live in Grand View-on-Hudson in New York's Hudson River Valley.

Past winners of the Helen Thomas award include Robert G. McGruder, the late executive editor of the Detroit Free Press in 2002; in 2003, Gerald Boyd, the first African-American managing editor of The New York Times, was honored.

The 2004 Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Awards program is 6-9 p.m. on March 13. The Max - Max M. Fisher Music Center - is located at 3711 Woodward Avenue in Detroit. Tickets are $125 for professionals, $50 for students. Call (313) 577-2627 for details and reservations.