NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Dependable performance and thorough research were among the key characteristics of the mutual fund managers crowned cream of the crop in 2002 by global investment research firm Morningstar.

The winners were: Joel Tillinghast, who manages Fidelity Low-Priced Stock; Rudoph-Riad Younes and Richard Pell, who run Julius Baer International Equity; and the management team of the bond fund Dodge & Cox Income.

"We look for managers who have enjoyed a great year and produced strong long-term performance. In addition, we want managers who put shareholders first and invest with conviction. The 2002 winners we selected have all these qualities. Not all of them made money during the bear market, but they were able to keep losses small, enabling shareholders to endure the difficult market conditions of the past few years," said Russ Kinnel, director of fund analysis for Morningstar, in a statement released Thursday.

Tillinghast, whose Low-Priced Stock Fund invests primarily in small-cap companies, has had to manage outsize assets of $15 billion. Typically, small-cap funds fare poorly once assets under management swell. But Tillinghast has defied that trend since 1992 when assets grew from $375 million to $2.2 billion.

Morningstar pointed out that even if you invested $10,000 in Tillinghast's fund in January 1993, just after the end of a small-cap rally in 1992, you would have more than $37,000 today.

Even though the fund lost 6 percent in 2002, that's far better than most of its peers. And its performance is ranked No. 1 in its category on a 10-year annualized basis.

"Steadiness has meant that Tillinghast has been a perennial runner-up for the award because he rarely posts monster returns," Kinnel said. "Yet when we look back at the fund's long-term performance, he dwarfs the competition."

Morningstar commended managers Younes and Pell of Julius Baer International Equity for their bold investing strategies, thorough research and peer-beating performances regardless of whether growth or value investing was in style.

"There have been plenty of fund managers who went from hero to goat or vice versa since 1999," Kinnel said. "When we look at this fund's record, Younes and Pell posted top-quartile returns in 1997, 1998 and 1999. Then, they put up three more years of outstanding returns even as leadership in the market swung from large growth to small value. They aren't speculative momentum investors. They managed to stay one step ahead of the markets."

The fund was down just over 6 percent in 2002, but still managed to outperform 95 percent of foreign-stock funds.

Most bond funds ruled in 2002 amid steep stock declines, but the 11-person management team at Dodge & Cox Income has distinguished itself not only in recent good times but over 10 years: the fund has outperformed its peers in every 12-month rolling period during the past decade, according to Morningstar.

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Being selective about which bonds it invests in, rather than making bets on interest-rates or credit issues, is one factor Morningstar attributes to the team's success.

"We were also impressed by what Dodge & Cox Income didn't own," Kinnel said. "The fund is overweight in corporate bonds relative to its benchmark. In 2002, that meant trouble because investors ran from corporate bonds for fear they would get caught holding the next Enron. This fund not only avoided disasters, but it also found enough winners to return nearly 11 percent in 2002. Just as impressive, the fund's returns for the trailing five and 10-year periods rank in the top 10 percent of its category."

(For performance, expense and portfolio information for these and other mutual funds, check CNN/Money.com's mutual fund page, where you can look up Morningstar reports.)