National Press Club

Mike Freedman Memorial Service

Alan Kotok

January 08, 2024

Photo Credit: Alan Kotok Former NPC president Gil Klein and the Club's history and heritage chair, served as emcee for the event.
Photo Credit: Alan Kotok National Press Club president Eileen O'Reilly announced a new student fellowship given by NPC Journalism Institute, named for Mike Freedman.
Photo Credit: Alan Kotok Former NPC president Gil Klein swings a baseball bat called the "Detroit Slugger", made by sporting goods company Rawlings for Mike Freedman.
Photo Credit: Alan Kotok Sam Feist, CNN's Washington bureau chief, told his stories about Mike Freedman from Iowa, where he and colleagues are preparing for the Iowa caucus the next day.
Photo Credit: Alan Kotok Former NPC president Lisa Matthews tells how Mike Freedman recruited her as the Club's vice-president in 2019 to serve the next year.
Photo Credit: Alan Kotok Former NPC executive director Bill McCarran recalls how Mike led the Club through the difficult early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
Photo Credit: Alan Kotok Harvey Nagler, a friend and former vice-president for radio at CBS News described Mike's work with CBS.
Photo Credit: Alan Kotok Heather Date, VP for communications at University of Maryland Global Campus, tells how she started as a student in a class taught by Mike Freedman, who then recruited her to work at CNN and the Kalb Report.
Photo Credit: Alan Kotok From his home, former long-time CBS news correspondent Marvin Kalb describes Mike Freedman's leadership in the development and growth of the Kalb Report.
Photo Credit: Alan Kotok Participants at the event to remember Mike Freedman filled up NPC's Holeman Lounge.

A Memorial Service for former Club President Mike Freedman was held at the National Press Club on January 8, 2024. 

Freedman was the Club’s 114th President and led the organization through the challenging year of 2020 when the pandemic was at its height. He performed remarkably in that role and was able to bring many important initiatives to the Club despite the challenging environment.

The service featured 

Freedman passed away in late 2023 from pancreatic cancer.