Herald editor singled out for honor by high school

The leader of the Daily Herald's Elgin office has been honored by his old high school.

Jim Baumann, who graduated from Prospect High School in Mt. Prospect in 1980, was given a distinguished alumnus award by the school during homecoming last week.

Since 1991, Baumann has been an editor at the Daily Herald newspaper. He is the editor and manager of the Fox Valley office of the Herald in Elgin. Between 1985 and 1991 he was a Daily Herald reporter.

Throughout his time at the newspaper, Baumann has put together a forum, attended by 900 people, on heroin and club drugs in St. Charles. He also won the Peter Lisagor Award for coverage of the Fox River Grove bus-train disaster.

Baumann's community involvement includes serving on a committee of the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce and helping to organize fund-raising for the American Cancer Society, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. In 2006, he was awarded a commendation from the Metro Chicago Youth for Christ and in 1995 and again in 2003 he was awarded an Elgin Image Award.

Baumann graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in journalism. He and his wife, Patt, live in Carpentersville.