Look who's getting the Order of the Owl

The National Press Club’s Silver Owls will present the Order of the Owl to the Club’s executive director, Bill McCarren, at their Holiday Hoot on Thursday, Nov. 30.

From time to time, the Owls — those with 25 or more years of continuous membership — confer the award, which is designed for "honoring birds of a unique species, weathered and wise, who have nested at the National Press Club and demonstrated that they give a hoot about Washington journalism.”

McCarren has nested at the Club since he joined it in 1986 as an active member. He has served in a variety of roles, including as chairman of the Newsmakers and Speakers Committees, each for three years.

He previously had founded his own company, U.S. Newswire, which served media nation-wide with Washington stories and information. The company went from three to 45 employees, with McCarren as president and CEO, until he sold the company in 2006.

Then-Club President Mark Hamrick recruited McCarren as the Club’s general manager and he took over in July 2007. The Board of Governors later named him executive director.

When he started, the Club was deep in debt and had not made a profit in years. In the face of competition like the Newseum, McCarren engineered a turnaround with no layoffs or wage cuts and emerged from the recession with no debt and several million dollars in reserve. He also worked with the Journalism Institute and the Board of Governors to sell the famed Norman Rockwell painting for nearly $11 million, securing the Club’s future.

Frank Aukofer, the Silver Owls’ Head Hoot, said the Council of Wisest Owls decided unanimously that it was high time the Order of the Owl went to McCarren.

“Few people in the history of the Club have had a greater impact on the fortunes of the world’s premier journalism organization,” Aukofer said.

The Order of the Owl has been conferred upon such luminaries as Mark Russell, Art Buchwald, Andy Rooney, Austin Kiplinger, Silver Owls Founder Bernie Goodrich, Tom Toles, Petula Dvorak, Dan Balz, Charles Overby, Brian Lamb, Robert Merry, Mary Lou Forbes, John Cosgrove, Donald Larrabee and Arthur Wiese.

McCarren lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with his wife, Andrea, a reporter for WUSA-TV, and their three children. In their spare time, the family raises and trains service dogs for wounded military service members and veterans.