Acel Moore, who died Feb. 12, 2016, at age 75, was an old-school journalist who cultivated sources from the grassroots level to the upper echelons of Philadelphia society. Moore couldn’t enter a room without being greeted by enthusiastic well-wishers, including many who over the years had found themselves roasting from the heat of one of his columns. Most, though, were genuinely fond of a native son from South Philly who had made good.

In 1976, Moore and a partner, Wendell Rawls Jr., embarked on an investigative project about how residents at the Farview State Hospital were being assaulted by staffers assigned to protect them. Those stories received the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 1977. Moore also co-founded the National Association of Black Journalists and the local chapter, the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists.

He founded the workshop in 1984 as part of a lifelong commitment to help create a path to journalism careers for multicultural high school students. Over the years, hundreds of students have participated in the program. Many have taken jobs in the media; others have used the skills they learned to build successful careers in other fields.