Two winners of the 2004 Bela Kornitzer Book Award were announced at the Friends of the Library Benefit Dinner on January 29, 2005 by Dr. Andrew Scrimgeour, Director of the Drew University Library. This year for the first time, the award was presented to both a member of the Drew Faculty and to a Drew Alumnus.
Dr. Catherine Keller, Professor of Constructive Theology, received the prize for her book, Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming (New York: Routledge, 2003).
Alumnus Dr. Brian Regal was recognized for his volume, Henry Fairfield Osborn: Race and the Search for the Origins of Man (Aldershot/Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2002).
The prize has been given every few years to celebrate a work of non-fiction written by a Drew University faculty member or graduate deemed outstanding by a committee of Drew faculty. Mrs. Alicia Kornitzer Karpati presented the awards of $1000 each to this year's recipients. The endowment for the Bela Kornitzer Award was created in 1992 by Mrs. Alicia Karpati and her late husband, George Karpati, to honor Bela Kornitzer, Mrs. Karpati’s brother. It recognizes his achievements as a journalist and author in Hungary and the United States. Thanks to a generous increase in the endowment, the Bela Kornitzer Award will in coming years be given to both a Faculty and Alumni/ae author.