Pulitzer Prize Winning Cartoonist Next Forum Speaker

March 12, 2003
University Park, Pa. – Ton Tony Auth, political cartoonist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, will deliver the Penn State Forum lecture at noon on Tuesday, April 1, at the Penn Stater. The topic of his presentation is "Sacred Cows Make the Best Hamburgers."

Auth began drawing at age 5, when he was bedridden for a year and a half and spent a great deal of time listening to the radio and looking at comic and children's books.

He graduated from UCLA in 1965 with a degree in biological illustration, and worked for six years as chief medical illustrator at Rancho Los Omega Hospital, a large teaching hospital affiliated with the medical school of the University of Southern California.

In 1967, while still a medical illustrator, Auth began doing political cartoons. In 1971, he was hired as a staff editorial cartoonist by The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he now is a member of the editorial board.

Auth has won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning, five Overseas Press Club awards, and the Sigma Delta Chi Award for distinguished service in journalism. He is also the author and/or illustrator of several books for children, the most recent of which is "The Sky Now."

The Penn State Forum is a lunchtime speaker series offered by the Faculty Staff Club and is sponsored in part by the Penn State Bookstore. It is open to the public. Tickets are $10 for members and $12 for non-members and include lunch. Reservations can be made by mail or by stopping by the Faculty Staff Club office at 103 HUB-Robeson Center. Tickets will be on sale at the door on a first-come, first-served basis. Lunch begins at 11:30 a.m. followed by the speech and a question-and-answer session at noon. For more information call (814) 865-7590.

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Contact: Amy Neil, Department of Public Information, at (814) 865-7517 or e-mail aen4@psu.edu