WEBVTT 00:00:05.740 --> 00:00:07.740 what occupies your time as a retiree? Well, uh 00:00:11.339 --> 00:00:17.907 semi retiree and uh you know, I was, I was re I just thought it was uh and 00:00:17.940 --> 00:00:22.877 I announced my retirement plans to retire a year ahead of time And so they 00:00:22.910 --> 00:00:30.910 could conduct a yearlong search. And I uh look forward to June 30, 2014. 00:00:31.640 --> 00:00:37.637 And you know, somebody had gone to work every day since 1969. So I was I 00:00:37.670 --> 00:00:44.446 was ready not to do that anymore and I was I was grateful to have to be 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:47.847 asked to come back and uh you know, have a, have a little bit of a 00:00:47.880 --> 00:00:52.646 presence in the Cronkite school and developed of course last fall that I'm 00:00:52.679 --> 00:00:59.427 teaching this spring on sports media ethics and So and and then doing some 00:00:59.460 --> 00:01:04.387 meeting work and and reconnecting with with with some graduates of the 00:01:04.420 --> 00:01:07.747 program, which you know, as well as I is very humbling when some of those 00:01:07.780 --> 00:01:12.257 former students are 55 years old, I don't know exactly how that happened. 00:01:12.290 --> 00:01:14.307 But 00:01:14.340 --> 00:01:18.667 Uh so some some some involvement with the school and the university for 00:01:18.700 --> 00:01:24.516 which, which I'm grateful. I continued to stay involved in the accrediting 00:01:24.549 --> 00:01:28.816 process uh process, national process that, as I mentioned earlier, I 00:01:28.849 --> 00:01:33.747 became involved in in 1990 After enduring the school of hard knocks in 00:01:33.780 --> 00:01:39.316 1987 and 1988. I'm a real believer and what accreditation can do for our 00:01:39.349 --> 00:01:44.676 field And I continue to chair site team visits over the years. I've shared 00:01:44.709 --> 00:01:49.527 visits to, I think nearly 50 programs across the country, almost half of 00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:53.277 the the accredited schools as I look back on it over that that period of 00:01:53.310 --> 00:01:57.046 time and this this year for example, I chaired visits to the School of 00:01:57.079 --> 00:02:00.617 Communications at American University in the in the journalism program at 00:02:00.650 --> 00:02:04.497 indiana University in bloomington and so on. And I'm still the vice 00:02:04.530 --> 00:02:08.867 president of the National Accrediting Council, so I'm staying active 00:02:08.900 --> 00:02:15.677 within that context. Uh My wife and I had always intended to come back to 00:02:15.710 --> 00:02:20.346 uh to the valley uh those one and four year old daughters when we moved 00:02:20.379 --> 00:02:28.379 here now 36 40. And uh we have in fact the the older one who's 40 laura it 00:02:28.870 --> 00:02:33.876 is a Cronkite school graduate Who went on and did her graduate work at the 00:02:33.909 --> 00:02:37.666 Medill School at Northwestern and has been in global media relations for 00:02:37.699 --> 00:02:41.797 15 years with the Intel Corporation, which again for that generation is 00:02:41.830 --> 00:02:48.547 not common to have that that that length of length of service with with a 00:02:48.580 --> 00:02:55.577 major company. Our our younger daughter mary earned two degrees, her B. A. 00:02:55.610 --> 00:03:00.656 In a master's degree from business here and she's now a stay at home mom. 00:03:00.689 --> 00:03:04.587 And she and her husband drew livin in Prescott where they've been the 00:03:04.620 --> 00:03:09.307 last couple of years and he also was a C. P. A. And they've blessed us 00:03:09.340 --> 00:03:17.340 with ah Twin now 26 month old uh granddaughter. So we're also first time 00:03:19.990 --> 00:03:25.916 grandparents and that's your most important accomplishment. Yes it is and 00:03:25.949 --> 00:03:30.226 uh you know, and uh, and Claudia and I, who will celebrate our 45th 00:03:30.259 --> 00:03:36.106 wedding anniversary on july 18th, feel very blessed to, to have that, that 00:03:36.139 --> 00:03:44.139 , that uh, proximity that we now enjoy. And uh, as I mentioned, I, I ran 00:03:45.610 --> 00:03:50.436 track in both high school and college and, and did my first Grand Canyon 00:03:50.469 --> 00:03:55.136 State games here in the masters division when I turned 50 which was now 17 00:03:55.169 --> 00:04:01.677 years ago. And uh, and I, I did the decathlon in the grand, in the 00:04:01.710 --> 00:04:07.126 Keystone State Games in, in Pennsylvania when I turned 60. So that would 00:04:07.159 --> 00:04:11.960 have been my first competitive decathlon since the drake relays in 1969. 00:04:12.039 --> 00:04:14.039 Everyone, particularly my family thought I was nuts, but did that just 00:04:18.540 --> 00:04:23.246 fine. And so, and so now I'm, I'm gearing up for once again for the 65 to 00:04:23.279 --> 00:04:28.476 69 year old age group of the Grand Canyon State games in the Arizona 00:04:28.509 --> 00:04:32.996 senior olympics. So, and I have now have more flexibility to do those 00:04:33.029 --> 00:04:38.317 kinds of things that I certainly had That I didn't enjoy prior to June 30 00:04:38.350 --> 00:04:45.106 , 2014. 00:04:45.139 --> 00:04:51.687 You want to go back to, to mr Cronkite for, for a minute on that, uh, that 00:04:51.720 --> 00:04:57.697 the time that he gave to this institution over that it was more than his 00:04:57.730 --> 00:05:03.457 name. And uh, in the early days, as you will recall. I mean, he would come 00:05:03.490 --> 00:05:08.786 out a couple of times here. He always came for the luncheon and, and would 00:05:08.819 --> 00:05:16.327 spend a day or two on campus, uh, visiting uh with students and he loved 00:05:16.360 --> 00:05:21.717 faculty members and uh, and employ. We would working hard, we would start 00:05:21.750 --> 00:05:25.637 with a breakfast somewhere in the morning and usually end up in somebody's 00:05:25.670 --> 00:05:31.027 house in Sun City at night. And I remember him drive and we drive back 00:05:31.060 --> 00:05:34.687 from some city at 10 o'clock at night. I'd be exhausted and I was 40 00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:38.476 something or 50 something at the time. And, and by then he was into his 00:05:38.509 --> 00:05:44.906 seventies and early eighties and he'd, he'd still be pumped up and spry. 00:05:44.939 --> 00:05:50.496 And uh, it didn't take very long for him to start always talking about our 00:05:50.529 --> 00:05:55.317 school. Never referred to it as the Cronkite school would, would never 00:05:55.350 --> 00:05:59.337 look at you as a faculty member and say your school or look at a student 00:05:59.370 --> 00:06:04.656 and say your school was always our school. And that was not by design. 00:06:04.689 --> 00:06:08.416 That wasn't my strategy. That was because he really meant it. And I think 00:06:08.449 --> 00:06:15.866 he took enormous pride and what he saw unfold here and it was even on hand 00:06:15.899 --> 00:06:20.647 before he was no longer able to travel. I think when he scooped some some 00:06:20.680 --> 00:06:26.587 dirt at the groundbreaking of the, of the downtown building. But just he 00:06:26.620 --> 00:06:33.007 really was uncle walter. And uh, he would stay after class for an hour 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:36.197 just to sign their textbooks. 00:06:36.230 --> 00:06:40.377 We would have class in the architecture auditorium, which was one of the 00:06:40.410 --> 00:06:45.906 largest in the building and the classes behind my class for two or three 00:06:45.939 --> 00:06:48.637 hours we're not in there because he was in there. They'd come in and 00:06:48.670 --> 00:06:52.426 listen to walter and they would be deferential those who would come in at 00:06:52.459 --> 00:06:58.476 the let him finish. And and yeah he was just, we always tried to protect 00:06:58.509 --> 00:07:02.437 him because those were long long days and we always try, we put him in my 00:07:02.470 --> 00:07:06.986 office at Stoffer haul for a half hours at 12 30 to 1 o'clock or one 00:07:07.019 --> 00:07:11.707 o'clock to 1 30. So we could make some telephone calls or whatever before 00:07:11.740 --> 00:07:15.676 we went out and about. And we would always obviously respect that the door 00:07:15.709 --> 00:07:20.546 would be closed and I'd fiddle around and so one day in particular I 00:07:20.579 --> 00:07:25.067 remember I came back and just a few minutes before 1 30 when we were gonna 00:07:25.100 --> 00:07:28.937 he was gonna go to a class down down the hallway and so I was just 00:07:28.970 --> 00:07:35.397 standing there in the front office and and there was a a father and a son 00:07:35.430 --> 00:07:40.257 at the at the counter and a staff assistant was there providing them with 00:07:40.290 --> 00:07:44.296 some curriculum check sheets. So they were there to you know, check on the 00:07:44.329 --> 00:07:47.207 program that young man was thinking about. I think he was from Minnesota 00:07:47.240 --> 00:07:54.306 was thinking about applying to a S. U. In the in the Cronkite school. And 00:07:54.339 --> 00:07:57.786 so they were looking at the information and all of a sudden the door to my 00:07:57.819 --> 00:08:04.567 office opened and walter walks out, nods his head to the the young man. 00:08:04.600 --> 00:08:08.257 And the and the dad and says to me well I'm gonna run down the hallway to 00:08:08.290 --> 00:08:11.147 use the restroom, I'll be back in a couple of minutes and we can head to 00:08:11.180 --> 00:08:19.180 class. And and and the dad looked at the sun and the sun looked at the the 00:08:19.490 --> 00:08:26.757 dad and the dad looked, it actually was uh lisa Coleman standing there, I 00:08:26.790 --> 00:08:31.926 was a staff assistant in her office. And and and and said the lisa said is 00:08:31.959 --> 00:08:38.096 walter Cronkite on staff here. So he he had that that kind of presence. 00:08:38.129 --> 00:08:45.407 And uh and then just one last little office story involving lisa Coleman 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:49.217 remember he's a public school teacher now I think that she was young and 00:08:49.250 --> 00:08:57.250 had had a little child at home. And and lisa was pretty new. Uh so it had 00:08:58.460 --> 00:09:04.037 to be 1987 or eight. And I speaking, I was coming back into the office 00:09:04.070 --> 00:09:07.726 from somewhere in her desk, was right inside that little gate where we 00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:12.096 went in. And and uh 00:09:12.129 --> 00:09:18.917 I just happened. And and I heard her say, oh sure it is, oh well we'll get 00:09:18.950 --> 00:09:22.967 right on that Mr Cronkite. And she's sort of rolling her eyes and looks at 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:26.226 me and I 00:09:26.259 --> 00:09:32.226 was expecting a call from him and I said it might be him. And uh and 00:09:32.259 --> 00:09:39.557 lisa's got and she said I'm sorry mr Cronkite, I I thought someone was uh 00:09:39.590 --> 00:09:44.756 Impersonating you. And of course he had. And I'm sure that wasn't the only 00:09:44.789 --> 00:09:49.297 time that that happened here. But yeah, he did. He wonderful. He did 00:09:49.330 --> 00:09:57.330 wonderful things for our school. 00:09:58.139 --> 00:10:00.807 Thank you for coming. 00:10:00.840 --> 00:10:06.856 Well, thank you. And it was just a privilege to serve this institution for 00:10:06.889 --> 00:10:13.246 20 years and a privilege To serve Penn State for 15 and now to to be back. 00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:20.547 And I know you were you were posing questions to me, don, but you really 00:10:20.580 --> 00:10:25.707 were along with Many others, just like you responsible for this, this 00:10:25.740 --> 00:10:32.207 wonderful spurt in the, you know, in the late 1980s and the 90s, 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:36.807 you know, editing national journals, 00:10:36.840 --> 00:10:41.646 senior Statesman and the Broadcast Education Association, writing book 00:10:41.679 --> 00:10:46.746 after book after book and always treating students with the great respect 00:10:46.779 --> 00:10:51.307 that they deserved. And 00:10:51.340 --> 00:10:56.057 others did that as well. But you were at or near the top of the list. And 00:10:56.090 --> 00:11:00.717 I want to thank you for that. We had some good students, but again, we had 00:11:00.750 --> 00:11:04.626 leadership that made that happen leadership that gave us freedom. And 00:11:04.659 --> 00:11:09.707 those students, they worked their hearts out. 00:11:09.740 --> 00:11:14.197 Yeah, that's why we want hearst. They wanted to win. They did. And as 00:11:14.230 --> 00:11:18.746 everyone here knows, it wasn't, you know, every institution never wants to 00:11:18.779 --> 00:11:23.557 be on that list of, you know, the 10 Greatest Party schools. We dealt with 00:11:23.590 --> 00:11:26.457 it at Penn State. Arizona State dealt with through the years. And, you 00:11:26.490 --> 00:11:30.067 know, this was an institution where you know, whatever, it was two thirds 00:11:30.100 --> 00:11:35.366 or 3/4 of the students had part time jobs, all working so hard to get 00:11:35.399 --> 00:11:40.226 through school. It was, it was a very undeserved uh status because they 00:11:40.259 --> 00:11:45.067 really were hard working students who the only party I remember is when 00:11:45.100 --> 00:11:47.746 all the news kids would come to my house at the end of the semester and 00:11:47.779 --> 00:11:55.779 we'd give them awards. It was a simpler time simpler type, 00:11:59.039 --> 00:12:06.547 which it's, it's terrific to be back in semi retirement. And The 2014, 00:12:06.580 --> 00:12:12.846 2015 school year, I'm, I consider an honor to be able to be affiliated 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:18.236 once again with Arizona State and it's walter Cronkite School of mass 00:12:18.269 --> 00:12:24.276 communication of Journalism and mass communication. Uh, I thought we had 00:12:24.309 --> 00:12:30.587 it pretty good Back in the 1980s and 1990s when we were in Stauffer Hall, 00:12:30.620 --> 00:12:34.697 which was a relatively new building. I think it was first occupied in 00:12:34.730 --> 00:12:42.730 about 1917 or 1971, But it was quickly outgrown as the school grew and of 00:12:44.200 --> 00:12:51.927 course no one would have ever thought in 1979 or 1989 or 1999, that it 00:12:51.960 --> 00:12:59.457 would now have a home that clearly is the best facility for journalism, 00:12:59.490 --> 00:13:05.557 Mass communication at any university in America. A wonderful home, A 00:13:05.590 --> 00:13:13.106 marvelous facility, a growing faculty, a student body stronger than ever 00:13:13.139 --> 00:13:19.986 with chris Callahan as the Dean who always is pushing the program to the 00:13:20.019 --> 00:13:26.547 next frontier, and it's just a joy to be able to be back here and to be 00:13:26.580 --> 00:13:30.179 part of that in some small way.