Tom Ferrick, Jr. (1949) is an editor, reporter and columnist long active in print and web journalism in Philadelphia. Until 2013, he was senior editor of Metropolis, a local news and information Web site based in Philadelphia that he founded in 2009. Prior to that, he was a reporter, editor and

columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...

for '' The Philadelphia Inquirer''. After being a columnist there since 1998, he left the newspaper in 2008. He has spent nearly 40 years as a journalist, focusing mostly on government. He is married to Sharon Sexton; they have two children. Born in South Philadelphia, he attended Temple University in the late 1960s. Although he did not graduate, he made many contributions to the school newspaper, The ''Temple News''.04/23/1996 - Almanac, Vol. 42, No. 29, Page 12-13
/ref> Ferrick got a job with a since-disbanded news service, the United Press International, in Philadelphia and later in Harrisburg. In 1976, he was hired as a Statehouse reporter in Harrisburg for the ''Inquirer'' and climbed through a series of reporting and editing positions, including City Hall bureau chief, poverty reporter, political writer, deputy editor, and special-projects writer. He was a Richard Burke Memorial Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania in 1996 He has recently been active in the Great Expectations Project, a partnership between

UPenn The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

and the ''Inquirer'', which has held public forums throughout Philadelphia to accumulate voters' opinions Projekt to the 2007 Philadelphia mayoral race. In 2014, he was interim editor of the news website AxisPhilly. In 2015, he was chief reporter/columnist for The Next Mayor Project, a joint project of Philly.com and the ''Inquirer'' and ''Daily News''. He regularly writes editorials for the ''Daily News,'' and has won two state Associated Press Managing Editor Awards for his editorials. He has won numerous local, state and national awards for his work, including the George Polk Award, an Associated Press Managing Editors Award, a World Hunger Award and, in 2008, the Hal Hovey Award, given by Governing Magazine for excellence in coverage of government and politics. In he was on a team of ''Inquirer'' reporters who covered the nuclear accident at the

Three Mile Island 3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * ''Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...

plant, coverage that received a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

. In 2005, he was named one of "Pennsylvania's Most Influential Reporters" by the Pennsylvania political news website PoliticsPA. His father, for whom Ferrick is named, was a major league pitcher for five teams from 1941 through 1952. Ferrick is also a lecturer in journalism at Bryn Mawr College.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrick, Tom, Jr. 1949 births Living people Writers from Philadelphia American columnists The Philadelphia Inquirer people Pennsylvania political journalists American newspaper reporters and correspondents