Mary C. Schulken
BUSINESS REPORTING
Greenville Daily Reflector

Mary Schulken is a Greenville powerhouse, having won Cox awards for Daily Reflector columns and editorials before also adding to her wall this year the Cox plaque for first place in Community Business reporting.

Her winning package was one dealing with a product indigenous to eastern North Carolina, and one that has generated its share of controversy.

A generation of American lawyers is making a living off tobacco products. State legislatures work overtime to find ways to spend huge settlements gained from them. Do the Eastern Carolina newspapers worry about appearing to be an apologist for tobacco?

"Most farmers here are smart enough to know smoking is not a good thing," Schulken said. "Many of the younger ones, especially, are ambivalent about growing leaf. But most are able to separate the political and moral issues from the economic one, and still face themselves in church. The same goes for newspapers. If you face issues about tobacco honestly, and call things as you see them, there is no need to worry about being an apologist."

Born and raised in Lake Waccamaw, N.C., Schulken graduated from East Carolina University in Greenville with a degree in English and a minor in journalism. She joined the Daily Reflector in 1980 and was a reporter and assistant managing editor before becoming editorial page editor and columnist.