Dietz fund to help aspiring business journalist attend IRE conference

Dave Dietz‘s former Investigative Reporters and Editors‘ colleagues and friends have launched a memorial fund at IRE to make sure his legacy is not forgotten.

The David Dietz Fund has been established to support a deserving journalism student or young professional pursuing a business journalism career. It will cover their costs to the IRE annual conference.

Dietz, the Bloomberg Markets reporter who died last week, devoted much of his spare time to IRE.  He took his role as a board member, then treasurer, president and chairman to new heights. He increased membership. He judged its contests. He championed the endowment fund and made sure it was invested appropriately. He was crucial to getting the IRE reserve fund to $600,000, which helped the organization withstand the 2008-2009 recession. He was a mentor to hundreds of journalists, always willing to help with a reporting problem.

Dietz was the go-to guy on business journalism panels. He believed in teaching what he knew, knowing it would enhance the profession he so loved. His death is not only a loss to Bloomberg, where he worked, but to the entire investigative reporting profession. Dietz was a true champion of business reporting. He had more passion as a reporter at 70 than most reporters at the starts of their careers.

IRE will announce its initial fundraising efforts at the conference this coming weekend in Orlando. Its goal is to make sure that Dave Dietz’s name is remembered at IRE long after all of us are gone.

Checks should be written to Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. with a notation in the memo field that the contribution is for the Dave Dietz Fund. They may be sent to IRE, 141 Neff Annex, Missouri School of Journalism, Columbia, MO 65211