The 1981 Louis M Lyons Award for conscience and integrity in journalism was awarded posthumously April 25, to Joe Alex Morris Jr. (A.B. Harvard ’49), a Los Angeles Times correspondent who was killed in 1979 while covering the Iranian revolution.

Morris, who was struck by a bullet during street fighting near Teheran, had reported from the Middle East for 25 years. The Teheran Journal said of the 51-year old correspondent:

“Morris was respected for his fairness; his untiring quest for truth; his willingness to listen, to learn, to observe. Among the press corps covering the Iranian revolution, he was loved as a humorous and very human elder statesman.” Morris’s widow, Ursula (Ulla), accepted the award on behalf of her husband.

Also in attendance were their daughter, Maria, a student at Trinlty College; Joe Alex Morris Sr. a former foreign editor for United Press International and The New York Herald Tribune and a former managing editor of Collier’s magazine.