Smith was clearly shocked and surprised -- that was obvious even through the rough video feed prepared in advance by Daniel Hunt of the ACES board and the tech people at the Chronicle in Georgia. The video feed, the trophy and $3,000 check shipped to the Chronicle ahead of time, the simple news that he won all had been kept secret from Smith for weeks.

Contest chairman Jim Montalbano addressed the Friday night banquet in a precisely timed event leading up to the big reveal, whereupon a widely smiling Adam Smith appeared on two large screens. Eventually, Adam spoke through his shock well enough to thank ACES and the crowd he could see applauding for him through a monitor on his end.

Smith couldn't be at the ACES conference this week because of the coverage of the Masters going on right in town. But his colleagues arranged for him to take time out from the busy deadline work to receive the prize; we in Denver could hear them cheering for him in the room they had gathered in around the monitor.

Smith is the third recipient of the award that focuses on excellence over the whole range of skills and contributions in editing. The prize, which is named for ACES co-founder and past president Pam Robinson, includes a trophy and $3,000.

A panel of seven judges noted that Smith’s “all-around excellence in editing, design, project work, deadline skills and education/outreach impressed the judges, who couldn’t find a hole in his game. While the other candidates were strong, Adam quickly rose to the top of each judge’s first ballot.”

In the 10 years that Smith has worked at the Chronicle, he has complemented his daily editing skills by updating the newspaper’s stylebook, creating headline and cutline writing guides and producing the WriteThru, an in-house style publication that points out editing successes and failures among training capsules.

“Our small newsroom sees many unseasoned copy editors who require immense basic training,” said Chronicle Presentation Editor Traci Long. “Adam seizes teachable moments, offering on-deadline instruction and explaining the nuances of our craft in a memorable and thoughtful way.”

John Gogick, Chronicle news editor, noted Smith’s creativity in editing as well as in his approach to training.

“One day he blew me away with his ‘Camptown Ladies’ rendition,” Gogick wrote in a letter of recommendation. “He had copy editors singing ‘doo dah’ to find the perfect rhythm for their heads. Adam turned that ditty and an idea on four headline drivers into a wonderfully instructive piece for Dow Jones summer copy editing interns.”

Smith “consistently has been the most versatile and reliable member of the copy desk, equally adept at breaking down complicated news stories to increase readers’ understanding as he is at designing sports pages to engage our readers,” said Long. “Adam’s creativity … sets him apart. He is not afraid to take editing risks, within text and in design, which consistently inject our pages with personality and an element of surprise.”

Smith is considered a major contributor to the Chronicle’s award-winning Masters Tournament coverage, both as a coordinator for the Masters preview and daily sections and in his creation of a day-in-review page, which combines graphic elements and synopses to recap each day on the golf course.

Colleagues noted his willingness to step in to get a story to readers. “When the Metro desk did nothing for a month with a hold-for-release BRAC report, Adam read and edited it down for a front-page package summarizing our area’s good, bad and ugly. It was a tremendous piece of editing, both in quality and quantity,” Gogick noted.

“Adam shared a corporate innovation award for the Backstory box,” Gogick wrote. “The Backstory box is a copy desk-driven initiative to recapture the franchise of national/international news. Adam was instrumental in helping add context and meaning to stories ‘readers could get anywhere.’ Readers look for these stories (and boxes) in our paper. The day Scooter Libby was indicted, more than one reader called, asking whether we were going to have ‘one of those things to tell me what the news means to me’ in tomorrow’s paper.”

Gogick’s description captures the focus of the Robinson Prize:

“Adam has been my right-hand man and leader of the night copy desk the past four years. I trust him to act in my stead implicitly. Adam resolves conflicts, makes copy better, writes great heads, takes risks with design, enforces style and uses sound, well-reasoned news judgment. The most important thing he does: Uphold our standard ‘Think like readers, act like editors.’ ”

Judges were Tim Lynch (Los Angeles Times), Holly Franko (The Oregonian), Bill Cloud (University of North Carolina), Jim Montalbano (University of New Mexico), Paul Soucy (most recently of USA Today), Maureen Cotter (Chicago Sun-Times) and Naomi Seldin (Albany Times Union).

This week, we'll have more pictures from the ceremony, as well as an audio interview with Smith shortly after he was given the award.