University of Missouri• Columbia ·Bu II Et in 1967
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I I University of Missouri• Columbia ·Bu II et in 1967 HONOR AWARDS FOR DISTINGUISHED SERVICE IN JOURNALISM BULLETIN U IVERSITY OF MISSOURI, COLUMBIA Vol. 68 No. 29 October 5, 1967 Jomnalism 1967 Series, No. 172 Sam B. Shirky, Director, Technical Education Services Louise H. Stephens, Editor Published by the Bulletin Editor's Office, 206S Technical Education Services, 417 South Fifth Street, Columbia, Missouri 65201. Issued monthly as follows: four times in March, April, August, September, October, and ovember; three times in January and May; twice in February, June, and July; once during December. Second-class postage paid at Columbia, Missouri. The Thirty-Eighth Annual Presentation of the Awards for Distinguished Service in Journalism May 5, 1967 Before a company of students, faculty and Journalism Week guests and par ticipants assembled in the auditorium of Jay H. Neff Hall, awards were pre sented to: DIE WELT Hamburg, Essen, and Berlin (Acceptance by Axel Springer, pub lisher) MARVIN D. McQuEEN, B.J. '36 Vice-President D'Arcy Advertising Co., St. Louis PAUL MILLER President of the Gannett Co. Inc., and of the Associated Press ST. LOUIS GLOBE-DEMOCRAT (Acceptance by Richard H. Am berg, publisher) WCKT-TV, Sunbeam TV Corp., Miami (Acceptance by Sidney D. Ansin, president) ROBERT M . WHITE II, Editor and publisher Mexico (Mo.) Evening Ledger Nominations for the honor awards may be addressed to the Dean of the Faculty, School of Journalism, at any time prior to December 1, annually. The nominees are presented to a fa culty committee, voted on by the faculty, and certified by the Board of Curators of the University of Mis souri. 1967 Medalists (Standing, left to right) Axel Springer (repre senting Die Welt), Marvin D. McQueen, Paul Mi ller; (seated, left to right) Dean Earl English, Richard H. Amberg (representing the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Robert M. White II, Sidney D. Ansin (representing WCKT-TVl. Remarks of Dean Earl F. English preliminary to awarding of Journalism Honor Medals Ladies and Gentlemen: Our program this afternoon consists of an effor.t on the part of ithe School of Journalism to honor media and individuals who over a considerable period of time have established distinguished records in journalism. This is the 38th year that this award has been made. A special oommittee of the .faculty each year studies a list -0f nominees, including journalists, newspapers, magazines, and broadcasting stations. This year .the com mittee considered nearly .one hundred nominations in selecting those ,we honor today. The committee's nominees are voted on by the Journalism .faculrty. The names of those elected are then presented ·to the Board of Curators for final certification. In addition to being recipients -0f this award, which has come to stand for the highest achievements in journalism, -0ur medalists become members of the Sohool of Journalism's Hall of Honor. Members .of that g.roup are represented by the pictures you see on the walls of this room. We shall induct our honorees into the Hall -0f Honor after the medals have been awarded. The medalists' ceremony today provides a special occasion for an important recognition which I should like to make at this time. In 1958-59 the School of Journalism observed the 50th anniversary of its found ing. Today we have another anniversary .to observe. This year and this week in particu lar marks the lOOth anniversary of the founding of the Missouri Press Association. The Missouri Press Association played an important part in establishing the School of Journalism. For while the School was founded in 1908, just 100 year~ after journalism crossed the Mississippi River, there had been journalism courses taught intermittently in the English department from as early as 1878 until ·the school was established. It was during that period that the press association exerted iits influence to set up a chair of journalism; indeed such a position was approved by .the Board of Curators in 1898. However, sufficient funds were not granted by the state legislature to make iii: a l"eality. I believe we should on this occasion briefly recount the sto.ry ·of vision, fore sight, determination and resolve which underlay .the establishment of this school by the newspapers -0f this state. In the prfoted proceedings of the Missouri Press Association for the year 1896 there appears this notation: "E. W. Stephens, publisher of the Columbia Herald, addressed the convention on Wednesday, June 10, 1896, on 'The School <>If Journalism.' " The next day a resolution was proposed by Mr. W. O. L. Jewitit of the Shelbina Democrat and unanimously passed by the convention. The resolution follows: "Resolved, that this Association looks favorably upon the plan to devote a chair in our State University to Journalism and that the President is hereby requested to appoint a committee of three to press the subj ect upon the attention of the Curators of the institution." These .records further note .that a similar resolution appeared eaoh year uilltil the chair was finally established. But during those 10 intervening years the legisla ture did not appropriate the funds and the chair did not materialize. The University catalog for 1898-99-1900, ho.wever, carried announcement of the new courses, but no faculty was appointed and the courses, of course, were not given. But the press association persisted, and in 1905 the University's executive board ordered a committee of its members to set up a course in journalism with full .power .to act. The committee included Walter Williams, editor of the Columbia Herald. The courses did not materialize, but prominent journalists were brought to the University in 1905-06 to lecture to the student body. Among .the speakers was Capt. Henry King, editor of the St. Louis Globe Democrat, the newspaper we honor today. Several years later he wrote of his pride in this participation and expressed the h ope that journalism would someday be .tJaught here by the practical method of publishing a newspaper. Another speaker in the series was George S. Johns, editor of the St. Louis Post Dispatch. He closed his address with the announcement that the Post-Dispatch had decided .to invite nine students from the University to publish a section of its Sunday newspaper. The venture was quite successful. The Post-Dispatch offered $25 for the ibest story covering the project. Homer Cr.oy, a senior on the project, who was later to become one o.f the state's best known authors, wrote: "Tomorrow we get out a miniature Post-Dispatch. We are to write it tomorro.w, and it will be out in the .regular Sunday edition. lt covers two inside pages, 16 columns in all, averaging 1100 words to the column. We have absolute control of it. It is to be conducted like a .regular paper. We have elected one of our boys as city editor and he is to manipulate .the blue pencil. In this little Post-Dispatch we are to have a department of news, one o.f spor.ts, ol1e of features, another of edit-0 rials, and a joke column." The nine boys returned to the University fired with enthusiasm for continuing journalistic experience in their university course work. Their wishes ·were not fulfilled before their graduation, however, .for it was not until April 2, 1908, that .funds finally were made available by ~he state legislature to start a school of journalism, and Walter Williams, a country e ditor, .became its first dean. As you know, he was later to become president of this university. This, o.f course, is but a brief recounting ,of the highlights of .the struggle hy the press association .to establish journalism education in this university, and, as it developed, the first .regularly organized school in the world. So now I hope you will agree that the occasion is appropriate today to recog nize once again -0ur indebtedness to this organization of Missouri newspapers. Not -0nly did these newspapers persist in great adversity in establishing the school but ithey have maintained an active interest in the school's welfare, and nurtured a beneficial relationship between the press and the university as a whole that is excelled in no other state or region. As Journalism Week closes this year -0f lOOth anniversary projects, let us JOlil in wishing the Missouri Press Association, founding fathers of the School of Journa lism, many happy returns of the year. (UNVEILING) We move now to our brief and simple ceremony of installing our medalists in the University of Missouri School of Journalism's Hall ·of Honor. Around the room •are pictures of the persons who have been so honored since the hall was established during the school's 50th anniversary in 1959. Included are all medalists since the awards began in 1930. Because the actual unveiling constitutes the principal part of this ceremony, it has not been entered into lightly over the years. In the past we have called upon a reconstructed engineering student in this School to contrive a system -0f levers and pulleys to permit the immediate display of the portraits in one grand flourish. This year a young woman has fashioned the unveiling mechanism. Miss Francine Hutchins (Chickie) from St. Louis, up until this moment a student assistant for Dean Gross, and a volunrteer for this job in the best military tradition, has the awes-0me responsibility of revealing the pictures. Her system has worked perfectly, I understand - IN REHEARSAL. CITATIONS AND RESPONSES To DIE WELT of the Federal Republic of Germany, in recognition of: its daily example of literate and significant journalism by which it provides its elite readership, domestic and foreign, with ex tensive news coverage, thoughtful commentary, and astute insights - all presented in an attractive yet dignified manner; its concern for national and international stability and confidence, and its determination, under the leadership of its publisher, Axel Springer, to break down walls of ignorance, prejudice and fear that divide the Germans into two nations and the rest of the world into many hostile camps; its responsible, well-educated and articulate writers and editors who, largely inspired by their long-time chief editor, the late Hans Zehrer, and by his successor in 1966, Dr.