Christopher D. Kirkpatrick has been a staff writer for The Blade since July 2004. Mr. Kirkpatrick previously worked for The Herald-Sun of Durham, N.C., where he covered the Legislature and was a projects reporter. He has also written articles for The Washington Post and worked for Capital News Service.
      Mr. Kirkpatrick, 38, graduated from Washington and Jefferson College in 1991 and earned a masters degree in public affairs reporting from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.
      In Durham, he won a 2003 Freedom Forum Excellence in Urban Journalism award for a series of stories on poverty. He was recognized in 1999 in the Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism competition for his series about juvenile crime in North Carolina.
        For his work about Ohio’s rare coin investments, he shared recognition as a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for public service and as a finalist for The Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. The Blade also received the print grand prize and a first place in investigative reporting in the National Headliner Awards and was recipient of an Excellence in Journalism award from the Press Club of Toledo for its work about Ohio’s rare coin investments.