what occupies your time as a retiree? Well, uh
semi retiree and uh you know, I was, I was re I just thought it was uh and
I announced my retirement plans to retire a year ahead of time And so they
could conduct a yearlong search. And I uh look forward to June 30, 2014.
And you know, somebody had gone to work every day since 1969. So I was I
was ready not to do that anymore and I was I was grateful to have to be
asked to come back and uh you know, have a, have a little bit of a
presence in the Cronkite school and developed of course last fall that I'm
teaching this spring on sports media ethics and So and and then doing some
meeting work and and reconnecting with with with some graduates of the
program, which you know, as well as I is very humbling when some of those
former students are 55 years old, I don't know exactly how that happened.
But
Uh so some some some involvement with the school and the university for
which, which I'm grateful. I continued to stay involved in the accrediting
process uh process, national process that, as I mentioned earlier, I
became involved in in 1990 After enduring the school of hard knocks in
1987 and 1988. I'm a real believer and what accreditation can do for our
field And I continue to chair site team visits over the years. I've shared
visits to, I think nearly 50 programs across the country, almost half of
the the accredited schools as I look back on it over that that period of
time and this this year for example, I chaired visits to the School of
Communications at American University in the in the journalism program at
indiana University in bloomington and so on. And I'm still the vice
president of the National Accrediting Council, so I'm staying active
within that context. Uh My wife and I had always intended to come back to
uh to the valley uh those one and four year old daughters when we moved
here now 36 40. And uh we have in fact the the older one who's 40 laura it
is a Cronkite school graduate Who went on and did her graduate work at the
Medill School at Northwestern and has been in global media relations for
15 years with the Intel Corporation, which again for that generation is
not common to have that that that length of length of service with with a
major company. Our our younger daughter mary earned two degrees, her B. A.
In a master's degree from business here and she's now a stay at home mom.
And she and her husband drew livin in Prescott where they've been the
last couple of years and he also was a C. P. A. And they've blessed us
with ah Twin now 26 month old uh granddaughter. So we're also first time
grandparents and that's your most important accomplishment. Yes it is and
uh you know, and uh, and Claudia and I, who will celebrate our 45th
wedding anniversary on july 18th, feel very blessed to, to have that, that
, that uh, proximity that we now enjoy. And uh, as I mentioned, I, I ran
track in both high school and college and, and did my first Grand Canyon
State games here in the masters division when I turned 50 which was now 17
years ago. And uh, and I, I did the decathlon in the grand, in the
Keystone State Games in, in Pennsylvania when I turned 60. So that would
have been my first competitive decathlon since the drake relays in 1969.
Everyone, particularly my family thought I was nuts, but did that just
fine. And so, and so now I'm, I'm gearing up for once again for the 65 to
69 year old age group of the Grand Canyon State games in the Arizona
senior olympics. So, and I have now have more flexibility to do those
kinds of things that I certainly had That I didn't enjoy prior to June 30
, 2014.
You want to go back to, to mr Cronkite for, for a minute on that, uh, that
the time that he gave to this institution over that it was more than his
name. And uh, in the early days, as you will recall. I mean, he would come
out a couple of times here. He always came for the luncheon and, and would
spend a day or two on campus, uh, visiting uh with students and he loved
faculty members and uh, and employ. We would working hard, we would start
with a breakfast somewhere in the morning and usually end up in somebody's
house in Sun City at night. And I remember him drive and we drive back
from some city at 10 o'clock at night. I'd be exhausted and I was 40
something or 50 something at the time. And, and by then he was into his
seventies and early eighties and he'd, he'd still be pumped up and spry.
And uh, it didn't take very long for him to start always talking about our
school. Never referred to it as the Cronkite school would, would never
look at you as a faculty member and say your school or look at a student
and say your school was always our school. And that was not by design.
That wasn't my strategy. That was because he really meant it. And I think
he took enormous pride and what he saw unfold here and it was even on hand
before he was no longer able to travel. I think when he scooped some some
dirt at the groundbreaking of the, of the downtown building. But just he
really was uncle walter. And uh, he would stay after class for an hour
just to sign their textbooks.
We would have class in the architecture auditorium, which was one of the
largest in the building and the classes behind my class for two or three
hours we're not in there because he was in there. They'd come in and
listen to walter and they would be deferential those who would come in at
the let him finish. And and yeah he was just, we always tried to protect
him because those were long long days and we always try, we put him in my
office at Stoffer haul for a half hours at 12 30 to 1 o'clock or one
o'clock to 1 30. So we could make some telephone calls or whatever before
we went out and about. And we would always obviously respect that the door
would be closed and I'd fiddle around and so one day in particular I
remember I came back and just a few minutes before 1 30 when we were gonna
he was gonna go to a class down down the hallway and so I was just
standing there in the front office and and there was a a father and a son
at the at the counter and a staff assistant was there providing them with
some curriculum check sheets. So they were there to you know, check on the
program that young man was thinking about. I think he was from Minnesota
was thinking about applying to a S. U. In the in the Cronkite school. And
so they were looking at the information and all of a sudden the door to my
office opened and walter walks out, nods his head to the the young man.
And the and the dad and says to me well I'm gonna run down the hallway to
use the restroom, I'll be back in a couple of minutes and we can head to
class. And and and the dad looked at the sun and the sun looked at the the
dad and the dad looked, it actually was uh lisa Coleman standing there, I
was a staff assistant in her office. And and and and said the lisa said is
walter Cronkite on staff here. So he he had that that kind of presence.
And uh and then just one last little office story involving lisa Coleman
remember he's a public school teacher now I think that she was young and
had had a little child at home. And and lisa was pretty new. Uh so it had
to be 1987 or eight. And I speaking, I was coming back into the office
from somewhere in her desk, was right inside that little gate where we
went in. And and uh
I just happened. And and I heard her say, oh sure it is, oh well we'll get
right on that Mr Cronkite. And she's sort of rolling her eyes and looks at
me and I
was expecting a call from him and I said it might be him. And uh and
lisa's got and she said I'm sorry mr Cronkite, I I thought someone was uh
Impersonating you. And of course he had. And I'm sure that wasn't the only
time that that happened here. But yeah, he did. He wonderful. He did
wonderful things for our school.
Thank you for coming.
Well, thank you. And it was just a privilege to serve this institution for
20 years and a privilege To serve Penn State for 15 and now to to be back.
And I know you were you were posing questions to me, don, but you really
were along with Many others, just like you responsible for this, this
wonderful spurt in the, you know, in the late 1980s and the 90s,
you know, editing national journals,
senior Statesman and the Broadcast Education Association, writing book
after book after book and always treating students with the great respect
that they deserved. And
others did that as well. But you were at or near the top of the list. And
I want to thank you for that. We had some good students, but again, we had
leadership that made that happen leadership that gave us freedom. And
those students, they worked their hearts out.
Yeah, that's why we want hearst. They wanted to win. They did. And as
everyone here knows, it wasn't, you know, every institution never wants to
be on that list of, you know, the 10 Greatest Party schools. We dealt with
it at Penn State. Arizona State dealt with through the years. And, you
know, this was an institution where you know, whatever, it was two thirds
or 3/4 of the students had part time jobs, all working so hard to get
through school. It was, it was a very undeserved uh status because they
really were hard working students who the only party I remember is when
all the news kids would come to my house at the end of the semester and
we'd give them awards. It was a simpler time simpler type,
which it's, it's terrific to be back in semi retirement. And The 2014,
2015 school year, I'm, I consider an honor to be able to be affiliated
once again with Arizona State and it's walter Cronkite School of mass
communication of Journalism and mass communication. Uh, I thought we had
it pretty good Back in the 1980s and 1990s when we were in Stauffer Hall,
which was a relatively new building. I think it was first occupied in
about 1917 or 1971, But it was quickly outgrown as the school grew and of
course no one would have ever thought in 1979 or 1989 or 1999, that it
would now have a home that clearly is the best facility for journalism,
Mass communication at any university in America. A wonderful home, A
marvelous facility, a growing faculty, a student body stronger than ever
with chris Callahan as the Dean who always is pushing the program to the
next frontier, and it's just a joy to be able to be back here and to be
part of that in some small way.