Gordon Johnson
At the 1996 Bookbuilders West Book Show, Chet Grycz was awarded the BBW Distinguished Service Award. The DSA has been given annually since 1983 to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the publishing industry and to BBW in particular. The criteria for the award include duration of involvement, influence for good within the industry, and the permanence of the individual's legacy with the industry and BBW.
The bulk of Chet's thirty-year career has been spent in scholarly publishing starting at Stanford University Press and then at the University of California Press as design and production manager. During his fourteen years at "The Press," he received numerous design and production awards, including the prestigious Curtis Benjamin Award for Excellence in Publishing. During this time he also had an important hand in preserving Frederick Goudy's original typeface, mattes, and correspondence related to the California 300 Project, which now resides at the Bancroft Library.
Chet's service to Bookbuilders West has been long and enthusiastic. He has served on the Board of Directors for three terms, has chaired the Education Committee, has been a Book Show judge, has been a dinner speaker, put together the high-tech seminars at PubForum '87 and has conducted numerous education seminars. He initiated and co-chaired our Electronic Publishing Committee, inaugurating the annual Electronic Publishing Update and the monthly Open Forum meetings.
In 1989 Chet headed The Scholarship and Technology Study Project within UC's Office of the President. The project studied the use of totally electronic documents in academic research environments. In 1994, after twenty years of service at the University, Chet took early retirement. Since "retiring," Chet has become quite a successful author, editor, and consultant. The New Riders Internet Yellow Pages, which he co-authored with Christine Maxwell, has sold more than 240,000 copies and is in its second edition.
Chet's contributions to publishing outside of BBW are also extensive. For more than twenty years he has been on the Advisory Board of the Certificate in Publishing offered by the UC Berkeley Extension. He has taught classes in the program every semester during this period. He is on the faculty of the Denver Publishing Institute, where he has taught classes since 1974. He is an active member of the Society for Scholarly Publshing and has served on their Board of Directors.
Chet may be the "ideal" bookbuilder: author, editor, designer, producer, teacher, publisher, and enthusiastic BBW volunteer. Congratulations, Chet, and thank you for your many contributions to our industry.
Gents and Ladies |