Presented to: Calvin Grondahl
For: Freeway to Perfection
Discussing these three volumes, the awards committee stated, "Expressively drawn, wonderfully incisive, and always witty, Grondahl's cartoons graphically surpass Mark Twain's criteria for humor: They do not 'professedly teach,' nor do they 'professedly preach,' but in their inimitable way they teach and preach, as must all good humor, and thus are instructive to Latter-day Saints and non-Mormons alike about Mormon culture and society. Mr. Grondahl points a gentle, sympathetic, but probing finger at individual and institutional Mormon foibles, conceits, fancies, flaws, and sacred cows, and thus illuminates the gap between magnificent LDS aspirations and often-bumbling Mormon realities. In his work, which is a remarkable contribution to Mormon Americana, Grondahl performs a great service and thereby awakens among all of us a restorative and therapeutic laughter."