CPB to Honor Julia Child with Public Television's Highest Honor

For Immediate Release on October 9, 1998

Washington, D.C. -- The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced today that Julia Child will receive the 1998 Ralph Lowell Award, public television's most prestigious honor. The award will be presented at a later date. Child, world-renowned French cooking chef and best-selling author, is being honored for her 35-year career as host of one of America's most admired and enduring public television programs and for creating an entirely new genre of programming -- cooking series -- a hallmark of the PBS schedule.

"Julia Child invited the nation into her kitchen and in doing so helped to define public television for a generation of viewers," said Robert T. Coonrod, CPB President and CEO. "She has touched their lives with her enriching and entertaining programs of lasting value. It is fitting to honor her most unique contributions to our industry."

Child began her public television career in February 1963 with the premier of The French Chef produced by WGBH Boston. The show aired two years after Mastering the Art of French Cooking was published by Child and co-authors, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. After some 200 programs on classical French cooking, she branched out into contemporary cuisine with the television series, Julia Child & Company, Julia Child & More Company and Dinner at Julia's. Currently, Julia can be seen on PBS as the host of the Cooking With Master Chefs series as well as the host of Baking with Julia . In the fall of 1999, she will begin a 22-part series with Jacques Pepin aimed at teaching techniques to the serious home cook.

Mrs. Child, upon being notified that she would be the recipient of the award, said, "I'm deeply honored to receive this award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This award confirms for me that public television is for viewers what fine wine is for diners; it pleases the palate and enriches the soul."

Child's other awards include the George Foster Peabody Award for Distinguished Achievement in Television in 1965 and an Emmy Award in 1966, the first TV personality to win this award. She received a second Emmy and a Best Television Cooking Show award from the James Beard Foundation for her series In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs.

CPB presents the Lowell Award annually to recognize outstanding contributions to public television. The medal is named for Ralph Lowell, the late Boston philanthropist and banker who was instrumental in the formation of the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television. The Commission's work led to passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 and subsequently to CPB's creation. Lowell served as the first president of the WGBH Educational Foundation from 1951 until he became chairman in the mid 1970s.

About CPB

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government's investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,400 locally-owned and -operated public television and radio stations nationwide, and is the largest single source of funding for research, technology, and program development for public radio, television and related online services.

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