THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9606300105
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 40 lines
Jeff MacNelly, a Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist who began his career in Virginia, has been chosen the Virginia Press Association's Virginian of the Year.
The award was to be presented Saturday night at the close of the VPA's two-day conference.
Efforts to reach MacNelly for comment were unsuccessful Friday.
MacNelly, who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with his wife, Susie, has been an editorial cartoonist for The Chicago Tribune since 1982. He also illustrates Dave Barry's syndicated humor column.
MacNelly, 48, has earned top honors in both his roles as a syndicated political cartoonist and as the creator of the comic strips ``Shoe'' and ``Pluggers.''
He won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartoons in 1972 and 1978 while working for the now-defunct Richmond News Leader, and again in 1985 while with The Tribune.
He received The National Cartoonists Society's highest honor, the Reuben Award, in 1979 and 1980, and the Sigma Delta Chi National Award for editorial cartooning in 1991.
MacNelly graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., in 1965, and attended the University of North Carolina, where he worked at The Daily Tar Heel.
He joined The Richmond News Leader in 1970 and has been drawing ``Shoe'' since 1977. ``Shoe'' appears in 1,100 newspapers worldwide, while MacNelly's ``Pluggers'' strip appears in about 100 newspapers nationwide.
When not drawing, MacNelly paints, sculpts and tries to keep his 1959 DeSoto running. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Jeff MacNelly, 48, who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is an
editorial cartoonist. by CNB