Tony Bartelme

Bartelme was born in 1963, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father, Joe Bartelme, was an executive with NBC News until his death in 1991.[3] Bartelme's mother, Margaret, is a teacher. Bartelme's son, Luke, played the character "TJ" on Lifetime's drama "Army Wives" for four seasons.[4]

Bartelme began his journalism career at The Greenville (South Carolina) News-Piedmont after earning a bachelor of science degree in 1984 from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.[5][6] He has been with The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina, since 1990.[6]

While with The Post and Courier, Bartelme was recognized for combining investigative reporting with magazine-style narratives on complex issues ranging from pension abuse[7] to toxic algae blooms.[8] In 2018, judges for the Society of Environmental Journalists award for beat reporting, said his “skill is evident as he dives deep time and again to deliver deftly-crafted, enterprising features on serious topics.”[9]

• In 2021, Columbia Journalism School awarded Bartelme its John Chancellor Award for Journalism Excellence, an honor presented to a journalist for his or her cumulative accomplishments.[10] Judges cited a career of ground-breaking environmental and investigative stories that stretched the limits of what local newspapers offer their readers.[11]
• In 2020, Bartelme was part of a team of reporters that was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for a climate change project called Rising Waters.[12]
• In 2019, Bartelme won the inaugural Victor K. McElheny Knight Science Journalism Award for a story about climate change and the Gulf Stream.[13]
• In 2018, Bartelme won the Gerald Loeb Award for Feature business journalism[14] and American Society of News Editors Deborah Howell Award for a story about the demise of the Piggly Wiggly Carolina grocery chain.[7]
• In 2017, the American Geophysical Union awarded Bartelme its Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism for "Every Other Breath," a series about climate change issues.[15][16]
• In 2017, the National Press Foundation awarded its Technology in Journalism Award for "Chasing Carbon," a story that was part of the "Every Other Breath" series.[17]
• In 2016, Bartelme was part of a reporting team that won a Scripps Howard Foundation award for community journalism about an investigation into police shootings in South Carolina.[18]
• In 2016, Bartelme was a member of a reporting team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the breaking news reporting category for stories about the fatal shooting of Walter Scott.[19]
• In 2013, Bartelme's series about high insurance rates was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory writing and winner of the Sigma Delta Chi Award for non-deadline reporting for papers with circulations between 50,000 and 150,000.[20][21]
• In 2011, Bartelme was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for in Feature Writing, for his series about a neurosurgeon's work to teach brain surgery in Tanzania.[22]
• In 2011, Bartelme was awarded a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.[23]
• In 2009, Bartelme won the National Press Association's Stokes Award for Best Energy Writing.[24]
• In 2008, Bartelme won the Gerald Loeb Award for Small Newspapers for a story about the effect of China's growth on local economies.[25][26]
• Bartelme won the 2007 Associated Press Managing Editors award for international perspective for newspapers under 150,000 circulation.[27] Bartelme has won more than 50 South Carolina Press Association Awards, including Journalist of the Year.[28]

Bartelme has written or co-written four books:

• A Surgeon in the Village: An American Doctor Teaches Brain Surgery in Africa, 2017, Beacon Press. Title in Canada: Send Forth the Healing Sun: The Unexpected True Story About Teaching Brain Surgery in the African Bush, 2016, HarperCollins/Canada.[29]
• Second Chance: The Mark Sanford Story, 2013.[30]
• The Bridge Builders and Charleston's Grand New Span, with Jessica VanEgeren, 2005.
• Into the Wind: The story of the world's longest race, with Brian Hicks, 1999.[31]

He wrote the screenplay for Born to the Wind, a documentary narrated by Peter Fonda on the 1998-1999 Around Alone sailing race.[32] The documentary won a Telly and Moscow Festival Special Award.[33]