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1970: Marquis W. Childs, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, distinguished commentary during 1969.

1971: William A. Caldwell, Record, Hackensack, New Jersey, for his commentary in his daily column.

1972: Mike Royko, Chicago Daily News, for his columns during 1971.

1973: David S. Broder, Washington Post, for his columns during 1972.

1974: Edwin A. Roberts Jr., National Observer, for his commentary on public affairs during 1973.

1975: Mary McGrory, Washington Star, for her commentary on public affairs during 1974.

1976: Walter Wellesley (Red) Smith, New York Times, for his commentary on sports in 1975 and for many other years.

1977: George F. Will, Washington Post Writers Group, for distinguished commentary on a variety of topics.

1978: William Safire, New York Times, for commentary on the Bert Lance affair.

1979: Russell Baker, New York Times

1980: Ellen H. Goodman, Boston Globe

1981: Dave Anderson, New York Times, for his commentary on sports.

1982: Art Buchwald, Los Angeles Times Syndicate

1983: Claude Sitton, Raleigh (N. C.) News & Observer,

1984: Vermont Royster, Wall Street Journal,

1985: Murray Kempton, Newsday, Long Island, N.Y., for witty and insightful reflection on public issues in 1984 and throughout a distinguished career.

1986: Jimmy Breslin, New York Daily News, for columns which consistently champion ordinary citizens

1987: Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post Writers Group, for his witty and insightful columns on national issues.

1988: Dave Barry, Miami Herald, for his consistently effective use of humor as a device for presenting fresh insights into serious concerns.

1989: Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune, for his provocative columns on local and national affairs.

1990: Jim Murray, Los Angeles Times, for his sports columns.

1991: Jim Hoagland, Washington Post, for searching and prescient columns on events leading up to the Gulf War and on the political problems of Mikhail Gorbachev.

1992: Anna Quindlen, New York Times, for her compelling columns on a wide range of personal and political topics.

1993: Liz Balmaseda, Miami Herald, for her commentary from Haiti about deteriorating political and social conditions and her columns about Cuban-Americans in Miami.

1994: William Raspberry, Washington Post, for his compelling commentaries on a variety of social and political topics.

1995: Jim Dwyer, Newsday, Long Island, N.Y., for his compelling and compassionate columns about New York City.

1996: E.R. Shipp, New York Daily News, for her penetrating columns on race, welfare and other social issues.

1997: Eileen McNamara, Boston Globe, for her many-sided columns on Massachusetts people and issues.

1998: Mike McAlary, New York Daily News, for reporting on the brutalization of a Haitian immigrant by police officers at a Brooklyn stationhouse.

1999: Maureen Dowd, New York Times, for her fresh and insightful columns on the impact of President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky.

2000: Paul A. Gigot, Wall Street Journal, for his informative and insightful columns on politics and government.

2001: Dorothy Rabinowitz, Wall Street Journal, for her articles on American society and culture.

2002: Thomas Friedman, New York Times, for his clarity of vision, based on extensive reporting, in commenting on the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat.

2003: Colbert I. King, Washington Post, for his against-the-grain columns that speak to people in power with ferocity and wisdom.

2004: Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald, for his fresh, vibrant columns that spoke, with both passion and compassion, to ordinary people on often divisive issues.

2005: Connie Schultz of Plain Dealer, Cleveland, for her pungent columns that provided a voice for the underdog and underprivileged.

2006: Nicholas Kristof of New York Times, for his graphic, deeply reported columns that, at personal risk, focused attention on genocide in Darfur and that gave voice to the voiceless in other parts of the world.