Journalist Mark Shields shares award for civility in public life

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Journalist Mark Shields, a Weymouth native, is the co-recipient of a Pennsylvania college’s first prize for civility in public life.

Allegheny College today gave its inaugural award to both Shields and columnist David Brooks of The New York Times during a ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington.

“The Allegheny College Prize for Civility in Public Life each year will honor two winners, one from each side of the ideological spectrum, who show noteworthy civility while continuing to fight passionately for their beliefs,” the school said in a statement.

The program is the brainchild of Allegheny President James H. Mullen Jr., a former executive vice president at Middlesex Community College in Lowell and senior vice president at Trinity College in Hartford.

“As a college president, this is my greatest concern,” Mullen said in the statement, which went on to highlight increased student volunteerism but decreased political participation.

“Most worrisome for me is that the incivility of political debate is turning young people off, and that fewer and fewer of them will seek a career in public service. I worry we are at risk of losing an entire generation to public service – with potentially catastrophic consequences for our democracy,” Mullen said.

He said he would be sending a letter to journalists across the country tomorrow asking them to not only highlight misdeeds, but also “the bright lights and unsung heroes of civility in their respective communities.”

Doing so, said Mullen, would encourage civility among politicians “because they would be rewarded for it.”

Shields, 74, was born and raised on the South Shore before heading off to the University of Notre Dame.

Among other things, he worked for Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign and managed the successful 1975 re-election campaign of the late Boston Mayor Kevin H. White.

Shields and Brooks spar weekly on the PBS “Newshour.”