Barry Sherman; Director of Peabody Awards

Barry Sherman, 47, University of Georgia professor who ran broadcasting’s 60-year-old Peabody Awards for the past several years. Sherman had directed the annual broadcast and cable awards, which emphasize news and public service as much as entertainment, since 1991. The Peabodys are administered by the university’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Sometimes called the Pulitzer Prizes of broadcasting, the awards are named for philanthropist George Foster Peabody, who died in 1938. Although Peabody had little to do with broadcasting, the Georgia financier donated millions of dollars to the University of Georgia. When the National Assn. of Broadcasters sought to create an award in 1940 to honor radio achievement, it turned to Atlanta WSB Radio general manager Lamdin Kay to set them up. He enlisted John Drewry, dean of the University of Georgia School of Journalism, for help, and the Peabody Awards became a university institution funded by Peabody money. Sherman left Penn State University in 1981 to join the faculty at Georgia, saying he was drawn to the school’s extensive radio and television archives culled from decades of Peabody judging. The Peabody Collection is the third-largest collection of historic video in the nation, following those of the Library of Congress and New York’s Museum of Broadcasting. A decade after joining the Georgia telecommunications faculty, Sherman was named the third director of the prestigious awards program. In 2000, the acclaimed cable television series “The Sopranos” and NBC’s new White House drama “The West Wing” have earned Peabody Awards, which are scheduled to be presented May 22 in New York. On Tuesday in Athens, Ga., after collapsing while playing basketball.