Daily Sun managing editor receives prestigious award

LACONIA — Laconia Daily Sun Managing Editor Roger Carroll has won the New Hampshire Press Association’s Dennis Joos Memorial Award for a series of firsthand stories about the state’s mental health system.

The organization’s 2018 Distinguished Journalism Awards were announced at a banquet Wednesday evening in the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester.

Carroll’s three-part series drew from his own experience as he went through a personal crisis that landed him in the mental health system and gave him an opportunity to shed light on that system and reduce the stigma of people needing psychiatric care.

Contest rules state the Dennis Joos Memorial Award is given “for a unique journalism effort in covering an event or issue of unusual significance to his or her readers, viewers or listeners.”

Dennis Joos, editor of the Colebrook News & Sentinel, was one of four people shot and killed by Carl Drega on Aug. 19, 1997. Joos tried to disarm Drega, who was later shot and killed by police.

Phil Kincade, executive director of the New Hampshire Press Association, said the award recognizes an effort that separates itself from normal journalistic endeavors.

“It is for someone who steps out of a normal role and exerts a sense of bravery to bring light to an issue of importance to the community,” he said.

There was a standing ovation when the award was announced.

“People instantly stood up in an honest recognition that what Roger has done is a really brave thing to do,” said Kincade, who was executive editor at The Nashua Telegraph when Carroll was editorial page editor of the newspaper.

“He’s one of those guys that has a tremendous amount of honesty and integrity and that generates a level of respect in the newsroom that is unparalleled.”

Adam Hirshan, publisher of The Laconia Daily Sun, wrote a statement that accompanied the award entry:

“Roger Carroll stopped into my office the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to tell me he was going into the hospital to take care of a medical issue that his doctor said could no longer be ignored. Roger said he might need to stay overnight, but wasn’t sure. I’m Roger’s age, so I figured it was a middle-age man’s sort of thing like prostate or gallbladder. Turns out it was a middle-age man thing of a very different sort.

“When Roger was released from the designated receiving facility where he had been admitted because he was suicidal, he told me he wanted to write about his experience. I suggested he tell his story through a certain John Doe, but he insisted on writing in first person to confront his painful past and also to strip away the stigma of mental illness while shining a light on the deficiencies in the state’s mental health system.

“Roger’s story, shared not only with readers of The Laconia Daily Sun but with any news outlet that wanted to run it, is making a difference in the lives of other women and men whose days are blackened by depression as well as bringing attention to a system that needs significant improvement to save and heal those lives.”

For Carroll, 60, the reception he received when his name was called meant as much as the award itself.

“To get that kind of reaction from a roomful of people I deeply respect meant the world to me,” Carroll said. “It was a humbling moment I’m still trying to wrap my head around. I also remember when and how Dennis Joos lost his life, and to be associated with him is an honor for which I am profoundly appreciative.”

Mental Health Series:

Part 1 — https://tinyurl.com/y4k6bn27

Part 2 — https://tinyurl.com/y67pkd3v

Part 3 — https://tinyurl.com/yyf6nzzo