Humorous Writing Publication, January 22, 1997.

              Northern Arizona University » School of Communication
Almost more than $4,000 was awarded earlier this year to North­ern
Arizona University students who were winners in the 18th annual
Samuel LaRue Fmley Humorous Writing Contest. The top prize winning
articles are re-printed here in this special tabloid supplement to The Lum­berjack.
The grand prize winner was Terisa Fowler for “Fat and Reality ”
first place winner was Jody Wenzel for “Star Trek: The X Degeneration
— Episode Gesundheit;” tied for second place were Andy Vaughan for
“Glove Apartment,” Anna Waddell for “Limerick for Tipper,’' and Naj ima
Ramey for “Clich6;” honorable mention went to Mark Ferstl for “The
Flying News.”
The contest was open to all students who were enrolled at NAU
— at Flagstaff or at any state wide site — for at least one semester or
summer session of 1996 and is financed through a perpetual fund estab­lished
by Mark Finley, now of the Boston area but formerly a media ex­ecutive
with a variety of organizations, including the Los Angeles Times
— Dorn Lee Network.
. Finley created the competition to honor the memory of his father,
S.L. Finley, who achieved recognition in the Flagstaff area more than 60
years ago by writing humorous jingles, cartoons and advertisements and
placing them around the community. The senior Finley later published
items in Flagstaff and Phoenix newspapers and attracted a regional read­ership.
‘The world needs a smile, and this contest is one way we can
encourage it,” said the contest founder, who added the purpose of the
awards is to “encourage students to do creative humorous writing on any
subject, any length, in any format — stories, articles, essays, or anything
This is a truly unique opportunity for students to be creative in a
humorous way and be rewarded for their work/’ said Dr. Sharon B. Por­ter,
director of the school. “We’re proud to be able to offer this contest to
the university. As far as we know, this is the only endowed comedy writ­ing
contest of its kind in the nation.”
The younger Finley, a graduate of the University of Arizona, was
awarded an honorary doctorate from NAU in 1994 because of his gener­osity
in establishing the self-perpetuating endowment for the contest.
The contest was open to both published and unpublished work.
Administered by the journalism faculty of the NAU School of Communi­cation,
the contest was judged blind: the judges were unaware of the iden­tities
of the contestants. The competition was coordinated by Martin D.
Sommemess, associate professor of journalism. Judges were Susan Herold,
instructor in journalism; C Brant Short, assistant professor of speech com­munication;
and Brian C. Snow, assistant professor of journalism.
In conjunction with the contest, the School of Communication of­fered
a special, one credit mini-course on Humorous Writing, JLS 299. A
special highlight of that workshop was a day long seminar taught by Rob­ert
Early, editor of the Arizona Highways Magazine.
“Mr. Early must have done a great job/* said Martin Sommemess,
the professor in charge of the mini-course. “Not only did the students say
he did an excellent job teaching his workshop, but five of the six prize
winners were enrolled in that special class ”
In addition to this special supplement to The Lumberjack, which
was produced by senior graphic design major Jessica Lundburg, selected
winning articles from the contest are scheduled to be published in Flag­staff
Lively thanks to the editor of that publication, Brian Johnson
Finley Humorous Writing Contest?