A longtime voice in the Marietta community — and Peach State — received a national honor this week for his distinct writing that forged a one-of-a-kind connection with readers.
Marietta Daily Journal syndicated columnist Dick Yarbrough won the 2026 Carmage Walls Commentary Prize for personal interest columns, beating out writers from USA Today and the Minnesota Star Tribune.
“It probably means as much to me as anything I’ve done,” Yarbrough told the MDJ. “When I was in the corporate world, I handled public relations, and there’s an award called the Silver Anvil, which is like their Oscar, and I won two of those, and I thought I’ll never beat that. But this beats it.”
Yarbrough is known across the state for his straight-shooting, humorist writing on whatever crosses his mind in a given week. He publishes two weekly columns — one on Wednesdays that runs exclusively in the Marietta Daily Journal, and a syndicated column. Yarbrough’s syndicated column appears in 55 newspapers across Georgia, making him the most widely-syndicated columnist in the state. His Walls Award win, however, was for his work in the MDJ.
“The thing I’m most proud of for the Carmage Walls Award is the credit that Marietta gets with all these big-time papers around,” he said. “The pride, I can’t tell you I felt, that it was up there with all these other national papers. I’m a part of the family. I’m kind of a distant cousin, but I’m a part of the family here.”
The Carmage Walls Commentary Prize has been awarded since 2022. It is named for the late Southern Newspapers founder Benjamin Carmage Walls. The national award honors distinguished commentary and editorial writing in three categories — personal interest columns, focused editorials and political/social commentary.
“He was head and shoulders above the others,” one contest judge wrote of Yarbrough. “He has a natural columnist voice and maintained a consistent, authentic voice throughout the columns. He blends perfect personal reflection and compelling storytelling and offers meaningful connections to both subject matter and the community.”
Yarbrough, who grew up in East Point, graduated from the University of Georgia in 1959 with a degree in broadcast journalism. He spent five years in radio before working for four decades as a self-described “corporate suit,” serving as vice president for BellSouth Corporation until his retirement in 1993.
That same year, he accepted a position from Billy Payne to become managing director for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. Yarbrough played a pivotal role in bringing the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games to life in Atlanta.
In July 1998, Yarbrough was asked to write a guest column in the Atlanta Business Chronicle about his assessment of how the city handled the Olympics. He accepted, and “unloaded” on what he felt was Atlanta’s poor management of the Games. The column generated a frenzy.
Since then, Yarbrough has written 1,367 syndicated columns and counting.
In the 2000s, Yarbrough was asked by late Marietta Daily Journal publisher Otis Brumby Jr. if he would write an additional column exclusively for the MDJ. They cut a deal, where the MDJ would handle the billing for his syndicated column if he would write a second column to only run in the MDJ.
Yarbrough has since written 859 MDJ-exclusive columns and counting.
For Yarbrough, taking on the opportunity to write in the MDJ was an opportunity to follow the footsteps of Jasper Dorsey, his mentor at Southern Bell, which evolved into BellSouth. Dorsey also took up a new career as a syndicated columnist in Georgia, including for the MDJ, following his retirement. Yarbrough said there was “a lot of pride” in getting to mirror his mentor’s path.
Yarbrough has eschewed taking one side or the other when he writes about politics, and prefers to primarily focus on human interest subjects. He said he averages about 20 to 30 pieces of mail per week from readers and responds to all of them. Yarbrough cherishes the relationship he’s forged with his readers and said he gets many column ideas from their feedback.
“I think it’s just because I’m conversational, and I go out of my way to not take myself seriously,” Yarbrough said of his ability to connect with readers. “I like self-deprecation, that kind of lets the readers know he doesn’t think he’s all that important.”
Yarbrough spends much of his time now looking out for the next generation. He established the C. Richard Yarbrough Professorship in Crisis Communications at his alma mater’s Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication.
His own experience navigating the Olympics through the Centennial Olympic Park bombing in 1996 showed him the importance of high-stakes communications, and he donates the proceeds from his syndicated column back to that professorship.
He also established a scholarship and a fellowship at Kennesaw State University in honor of his late wife, Jane, a longtime nurse who passed away in 2020. The Jane J. Yarbrough Nursing Scholarship was created in 2022 and the Jane J. Yarbrough Nursing Faculty Fellowship followed in 2024.
As a columnist, Yarbrough’s brand of humor, self-deprecation, Southern charm and authenticity have endeared him to readers for years. His columns still run twice a week in the MDJ.
“I just write like I talk, and that’s how I communicate with the readers, and they seem to respond,” he said. “I’ve got some people that are my best friends, and I’ll never meet them.”