Contact: Sarah A. Shrode, marketing/communications manager, Society of Professional Journalists, (317) 927-8000, ext. 217

INDIANAPOLIS - The new national headquarters building for the Society of Professional Journalists and the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation will be named the Eugene S. Pulliam National Journalism Center in memory of the late publisher of the Indianapolis Star.

A half-million dollar contribution to the SPJ-SDX capital campaign secured the naming of the building in memory of Eugene S. Pulliam, who was a longtime SPJ member and whose father, Eugene C. Pulliam, was a founding member of the organization in 1909 at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind.

The major gift came from the Jane Pulliam Trust, co-managed by two of Eugene S. Pulliam’s children, Russell B. Pulliam and Myrta J. Pulliam.

The contribution was “a desire to really honor my father through an organization that he was actively involved in and that we are involved in as a family,” said Russell B. Pulliam, a Sigma Delta Chi national board member and SPJ member since the 1970s.

SPJ and SDX bought the building at 3909 N. Meridian St. in the fall of 1999 and recently completed a major renovation project. The move from the organizations’ headquarters in Greencastle was completed June 30 after 10 years in that location.

Formal dedication of the 12,000-square-foot building will take place at noon Aug. 11, 2000.

“I was deeply touched by the Pulliam family’s generosity, and I can’t think of a more fitting way to honor the Pulliam journalism legacy to this country than to name this building in memory of Gene Pulliam,” said Jim Gray, executive director of both SPJ and the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation.

The capital campaign to raise $1 million to fund the facility got under way earlier this year. Honorary chair of the campaign is Jane Pauley, Dateline NBC anchor and Indiana native. More than 72 percent of the campaign goal now has been met.

Founded in 1909, the Society of Professional Journalists began as Sigma Delta Chi, an honorary journalism fraternity. SPJ, with nearly 11,000 members, is the nation’s largest and most broad-based journalism organization, and the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation funds projects that advance education in and the practice of journalism.