{"id":15328,"date":"2016-05-05T17:12:28","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T21:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=15328"},"modified":"2017-01-11T17:05:06","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T22:05:06","slug":"davan-maharaj-wins-2016-distinguished-alumnus-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2016\/05\/davan-maharaj-wins-2016-distinguished-alumnus-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Davan Maharaj wins 2016 Distinguished Alumnus Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Davan Maharaj was not your typical UTC undergraduate.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it was because he was from Trinidad \u2026 and had a Caribbean accent \u2026 with an even more interesting name (pronounced DAY vahn MA ha rahj<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Maybe it was because he already had lived life a little bit and had a successful career prior to arriving in Chattanooga \u2013 having spent time as an award-winning reporter before acquiescing to his mother\u2019s wish to earn his college degree.<\/p>\n

Certainly, he knew exactly what he needed to do \u2013 which was to add an education to his journalism expertise in order to devote his professional career to \u201cdoing good and making a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meet Davan Maharaj, the editor-in-chief and publisher of the Los Angeles Times and the 2016 UTC Distinguished Alumnus Award honoree.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Davan<\/a>Maharaj\u2019s journey from Caribbean reporter to intern-to-publisher of the L.A. Times had a fascinating little four-year stopover on the UTC campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe short story,\u201d said Maharaj (BS, Political Science, 1989), \u201cis one of my uncles worked for the DuPont Company \u2013 and I was actually going to go to school in Pennsylvania because he was headquartered in Delaware. But he moved (to Tennessee), and I applied to UTC. I was an older student. I had already worked for five years for a newspaper in the Caribbean called the Trinidad Express. I covered basically everything in Trinidad, from cops to investigative reporting. But I didn\u2019t have a college degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

His mother, Dolly, made it known early on that she expected Davan and his three siblings to get a college education. Go ahead \u2026 get your life started \u2026 but you won\u2019t go places without that degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom was very interested in all of her kids getting a college education. And all of my siblings had a college degree except me,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I was having the most fun, by the way. It\u2019s been said that the one thing they don\u2019t tell you about journalism is a secret \u2026 that it\u2019s a lot of fun. It\u2019s a passport into people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maharaj used his time at UTC to get to know people and to learn their stories. He would go to a different church in Chattanooga every Sunday. He said it gave him a window into the city and into how people lived. He got to see a lot of different things and meet a lot of interesting people. It was the right place because there were no distractions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe time I was there was a lot of fun,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a hodgepodge of very eclectic people pursuing different intellectual interests. Like my poet friend Khaled Mattawa, who is now a professor of literature. There was John Meeks, who became a teacher of religious studies. There\u2019s a lawyer in town named Bob Meeks \u2013 same last name, no relation \u2013 who was from Mississippi. He was a Seventh-Day Adventist. We found each other interesting. There were so many others. The one thing that I learned is not to judge people. Accept people for who they are. Everyone has an interesting story.<\/p>\n

\u201cChattanooga was a godsend because it was a place that was welcoming and a place where we could remake ourselves by absorbing this really special education that we got there. To me, it also meant becoming part of a community in Tennessee and part of an international community. At that time, they were recruiting people from around the globe. People from around the world were finding their way to Chattanooga. It meant meeting adult students \u2013 people who were coming back to school and were extremely fascinating. It also meant opening up my world. I had engaging sessions with professors and classmates. It was a lot of fun. I\u2019ve said this in a speech before \u2026 I really can\u2019t find a time where I had a negative experience at UTC. I\u2019m not blocking anything. I don\u2019t think there were any.\u201d<\/p>\n

And UTC, to Maharaj, meant learning and discovery. It meant \u201cmeeting people who are extremely generous teachers, and people who are intellectually rigorous.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about having a favorite professor, he said it was hard to single one out. But \u201cJim Ward really challenged me. Not just with the material \u2013 but he was an excellent writer. While teaching history, he would talk about writing, and I absorbed a lot of that. It made me just think about how important professors and teachers are, because sometimes the best students in the class hang on your every word. With Professor Ward, I used a lot of his critiques and observations about writing in my own writing. So he would be one who stood out. I learned a lot about questioning history and about writing history and how history is written and about deconstructing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Although he arrived in Chattanooga having been a reporter in the Caribbean, it was during his time at UTC where Maharaj really crafted and refined his journalism career. He had professors who challenged him and classmates who bonded with him \u2013 including some unique individuals on The Student Echo newspaper staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was really somebody you could see would be a mentor, especially as far as reporting and writing went,\u201d said Chris Gilligan (BA, Humanities, 1989), an Echo colleague who is now UTC University Relations\u2019 web development specialist. \u201cAlthough he was one of the outstanding (communications) students at the time, he didn\u2019t have much of an ego. He was really willing to help people and direct people in terms of getting the story and getting things right. Although he had a bit more reporting experience than most of us did, he wasn\u2019t snobbish about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a pretty serious student \u2013 more so than a lot of us \u2013 and a lot more professional and focused on his career than some of us were. He was also a really friendly and fun-loving guy with a great sense of humor. He was a whole lot of fun to work with. Putting out a college newspaper is pretty serious business for early twentysomethings who don\u2019t have a whole lot of work background. You really get to know people \u2013 and the group of editors especially got to know each other pretty well. He was just a really fun guy to work with and great as far as being an excellent writer. And he had an understanding of what it took to get a story and publish a story.\u201d<\/p>\n

His editor-in-chief at The Echo, Khaled Mattawa, called Maharaj wonderful in that he completely understood what it was like to be on his own culturally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat connected us were the things that were not part of our education \u2013 the authors we liked \u2026 the ideas that we found exciting \u2026 the political views we were exploring,\u201d said Mattawa (BA, Political Science, 1989), now an associate professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan. \u201cWe had a lot in common \u2013 other than the fact that he was a serious student and I was an unpredictable one. We were serious about ideas, and we both had a mischievous sense of fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I should say about Davan is that \u2013 as capable as he was when we worked with him \u2026 he never ever \u2026 not once \u2026 did he show off or claim the authority that was due his experience. We felt confidence in him by virtue of his skills and his camaraderie and patience. He never said, \u2018This is how it must be \u2026 or this is how it is \u2026 or you guys don’t know a thing about journalism and I’m the expert.\u2019 All of those things were true, but he never said them or even implied them. He also could have written many articles for The Echo, or published his course pieces for it. He never did that. He allowed his fellow students to do the work and edited the pieces \u2013 which may have been good training for him. He was just a great benign force of support and expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his second year as The Echo\u2019s editor-in-chief, Mattawa brought in his good friend as managing editor. The results were immediately noticeable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to finish the weekly issue at 5 a.m. on Thursday,\u201d he recalled. \u201cWhen Davan took over as managing editor, we finished the issue at 11 p.m. \u2013 with plenty of time to grab some beer and nachos at the Pickle Barrel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

They met in a Faulkner class.<\/p>\n

Right from the beginning, Maharaj was smitten with Abby Harris. The first time Davan met Abby, \u201cI knew that there was something about her. We would talk \u2013 and I had a secret crush on her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davan and Abby actually first met in 1985 \u2013 the year they started at UTC. They both ate lunch at the Christian Student Center, where church ladies would bring in home-cooked dishes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would chat a little. He would tell me about things like his working as a journalist in Trinidad and publications he respected, like the Christian Science Monitor. He even loaned me a Street Pulse cassette tape once,\u201d said the future Abby Maharaj (BA, English & American Literature, 1989) \u2013 a native of nearby Jasper, Tenn. \u201cHe seemed reserved, intellectual, and extremely polite and well spoken.\u201d<\/p>\n

They only crossed paths a few times over the next couple of years before they both wound up in Professor Arlie Heron\u2019s Faulkner class.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe both liked Faulkner\u2019s writing and especially liked Heron\u2019s style of lecturing,\u201d Abby said. \u201c(Davan) always had great comments to contribute in class. I was impressed at his intelligence and his observations about the material we were studying. We ended up attending the same study group sessions, where we learned we had several mutual friends. And a couple of good friends of mine from that group spoke highly of him. I could see he was a good person.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor our first date, he invited me to Grote Hall to see a foreign film. That became one of our favorite things to do. We saw each other nearly every day after that. I would hang out in the offices of The Echo.\u201d<\/p>\n

They started dating eight months before he left Chattanooga to begin a summer internship with the L.A. Times in 1989.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my first year, I went back several times to see her,\u201d he said. \u201cTravel wasn\u2019t easy 27 years ago. You had to fly from (Los Angeles) to Detroit to North Carolina to Atlanta \u2013 and then drive to Tennessee. So she eventually came out here. We came back a couple years later and got married on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davan and Abby have two children and try to make annual pilgrimages back to Tennessee. Abby\u2019s mother, Wanda, recently retired after a long nursing career. Three of her siblings still live in the area. Meanwhile, Davan\u2019s sister, Elaine, is married to the former head of the UTC Political Science Department \u2013 Dr. Fouad Moughrabi.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a couple, UTC was a place we remember for the great faculty and for the interesting classmates we had,\u201d Abby said. \u201cAnd Chattanooga is such a great city that has it all \u2026 arts, culture, beautiful geography, rich history, and a strong sense of community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abby was his secret crush in Chattanooga. Today, Davan calls Abby his hero.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was a Times correspondent in Africa, she got sick. We lived in Nairobi. After stops in Africa and London, we ended up in Los Angeles \u2013 where she had a liver transplant. It was a pretty close call, and it has really given me a perspective on life. One, in terms of someone who has been through so much \u2013 this is why she\u2019s my hero. She\u2019s been through so much and has the most positive outlook on life. And two, it taught me to measure the little moments \u2013 like spending time with your family, or your loved ones, or your friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

The UTC Distinguished Alumnus Award was established in 1969 by the UTC Alumni Council to recognize alumni who have made significant contributions to the community and society, and whose accomplishments and career activities have reflected glory on the university. Selection criteria for the award includes having a national or international reputation in his or her field; outstanding contribution to science, medicine, the arts or other fields; and selection for national or international awards.<\/p>\n

As editor-in-chief and publisher of the Los Angeles Times Media Group, Maharaj oversees the largest daily newsgathering organization in the West. He added publisher to his title in March 2016 after having been named editor and executive vice president in 2011.<\/p>\n

During the last two years, he has led the newsroom to three Pulitzer Prizes \u2013 including the breaking news award for its coverage of last December\u2019s mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif.<\/p>\n

As a reporter, his six-part series \u201cLiving on Pennies\u201d \u2013 in collaboration with L.A. Times photographer Francine Orr \u2013 won the 2005 Ernie Pyle Award for Human Interest Writing and inspired readers to donate tens of thousands of dollars to aid agencies working in Africa. His investigative report about a probate attorney who inherited millions of dollars in stock, land and other \u201cgifts\u201d from his clients led to changes in California probate law.<\/p>\n

Maharaj was pleasantly surprised and humbled to learn of the award, according to his wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a reminder that UTC was a great foundation for his future career in journalism and for life in general,\u201d Abby Maharaj said. \u201cHis professors went above and beyond to do more than just lecture in the classroom. Davan was always the kind of person to check in with professors, sometimes just to say \u2018Hi\u2019 and see how they were doing, but also to discuss things they were learning from the class. I think the professors appreciated his taking the extra step to engage with them on this level. It is encouraging to see that UTC makes this effort to celebrate alums who apply what they learned here to their future careers, while never losing sight of that foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mattawa said that selecting Maharaj was an overdue honor.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavan deserves this more than any other UTC alumnus I know. It’s a great thing for the university to recognize him,\u201d said Mattawa, a recent MacArthur Fellows Program Genius Grant recipient. \u201cChoosing Davan for such an award shows that UTC is operating at a high national and international level when it comes to training leaders for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Maharaj\u2019s perspective, winning the 2016 Distinguished Alumnus Award put a marker on a very important period in his life \u2013 a period of discovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I go back, I try to recreate some of the pleasant experiences I had there,\u201d he said. \u201c(Winning the award) doesn\u2019t change who I am or what I\u2019m trying to achieve. What I\u2019m trying to achieve is simple; by searching for truth, I\u2019m bringing information to readers so we can all be better citizens. I try not to get too caught up in what my position is \u2026 I\u2019m searching for truth and doing high quality journalism. I\u2019m making a difference. Thirteen years ago, I was a correspondent in Africa \u2013 just trying to write good stories about people I cared about and people whose stories I was interested in telling.<\/p>\n

\u201cUTC opened up my world to a different culture. From the jobs I had on campus, working in the writing lab to a couple of other odd jobs, it was more about the vibe \u2013 a vibe that anything is possible. I always thought about doing the right thing in the moment and being righteous. That\u2019s why I got into journalism. It\u2019s about doing good and making a difference. It sounds trite, but it has the benefit of being both corny and true. My experience at UTC truly prepared me for that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Davan Maharaj \u201989 has been named recipient of the 2016 UTC Distinguished Alumnus Award.<\/p>\n

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