My name is Don Godfrey. I'm here with Doug Anderson professor at the
Cronkite School. We have a technical support staff today including John
mcintosh, operating the camera, Roger Carter, audio Linda Vanoy, director
and David Schultz Le chair of the video history project. We are here to
talk to Doug today about his role in the uh his role in the foundation of
the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications.
Well, my name is Doug Anderson and uh I was a faculty member and later an
administrator here at Arizona State University. Arrived here as a tenure
track assistant professor in the fall of 1979 and uh went through the
professorial ranks here uh was made the director of the Walter Cronkite
School of Journalism and Telecommunication, which is now the Walter
Cronkite School of Journalism and mass communication. I was made the
director of the school in 1987 served in that capacity until 1999. Uh when
I uh left to become the Dean of the College of Communications at Penn
State University.
So Doug, why don't we just start by uh you're giving us a little
background in your early life and where you were born and raised. Ok. Well
, I was uh I was born and raised in Superior Nebraska, a little town of
3300 people when I lived there. Like a lot of those small towns in the
Midwest, much smaller today. About 1800 people live in Superior Nebraska
town, founded in the middle 18 hundreds and got its name because of the
quality of the soil. Obviously a farming community. Uh
post World War two baby uh December of 1947. Uh grew up in Superior. Uh My
father died when I was 11 years old, leaving a 44 year old widow who lived
to be 96. And uh today, I would be considered that the product at a
certain juncture, obviously early on of a one parent home, but it was a
small town. Uh My mother's sister lived nearby along with her husband. And
so as I look back on it, I was really raised by three people. My mother,
my aunt and my uncle and I, you know, lower to middle class uh family uh
65 students in my high school graduating class. I was a good high school
athlete earning 12 letters and some combination of football, cross country
basketball and track, an all state Nebraska high school basketball player
and a three time gold medalist in the Nebraska high school track and field
pentathlon competition. I earned a scholarship, full basketball
scholarship to the University of Nebraska at Lincoln where I enrolled in
the fall of 1966 reasonably well prepared for college. I think, like all
of us had a particular high school teacher that I look back on with great
affection and with great respect. And her name was Marjorie Smith. She
lived to be 101 or 100 and two. But it was a, it was a, it was a very
unusual set of circumstances. Here was this uh the wife of a local farmer
teaching in the in, in Superior High School with a master's degree from
Kansas State University. And uh I had Mrs Smith for high school English
speech and journalism and uh gave me confidence early on, uh probably had
confidence in me before I had confidence in myself as a student. And so
I'll always be grateful for all that she did. And, and like many of her
former students when I would go back and visit my mother or go back to
Superior Nebraska, I would always visit Missus Smith. As I said, she died
at 101 or 102 5 or six or seven years ago. And she was in Broadstone
Memorial Hospital in Superior Nebraska. Still her body gave out, but she
was still sharp as attack. There was about 12 books on the bed stand
beside her in the hospital when she uh she passed away anyhow, uh I was at
the University of Nebraska in Lincoln as a freshman, I was a third guard
on the freshman basketball team and also I was on the track team was gonna
be redshirted also, even at age 18 or 19 was mature enough to know that at
best, I was probably going to be a borderline big eight basketball player.
It's now the big 12. It was the big eight then and it was very important
to me to be able to compete. And so uh I made the uh uh decision to
transfer to Hastings College, a liberal arts school in South central
Nebraska. And uh so I could play basketball and run track and also work
part time at the, at the local newspaper. And uh II, I graduated from
Hastings College in 1970 Magna cum Lati with a double major in English and
journalism, uh went there on an academic and athletic scholarship. Uh But
I gave up the athletic scholarship after my junior year when I was given
the opportunity to be the sports editor of the Hastings Tribune, which was
an 18,000 circulation daily, a small daily newspaper, but the fourth
largest newspaper at the time in the state of Nebraska. And uh and so I
work more than 40 hours a week as a senior in college. While I, while I
finish that work
after I graduated from college, went on to be the assistant or the sports
information director at Emporia State in Kansas, but soon returned to
Hastings in the summer of 1971 with my wife Claudia and uh was a reporter
at the Hastings Tribune and then was made the city editor. And then in
1975 at the age of 25 was named the managing editor of the newspaper. It
was a Seaton newspaper. The Seaton family had a string of daily newspapers
, radio stations, television stations in Kansas, South Dakota and Wyoming
. I don't think they had a penny of debt. It was a very well to do family
with some very good media properties. Fred Seaton was the publisher of the
newspaper. Fred Seaton was Dwight Eisenhower's Secretary of Interiors and
came back to Nebraska after his days in Washington ran unsuccessfully for
Governor of Nebraska, but stayed on along with his brother in Kansas to
manage all of those media properties. I decided though in 1977
well, actually before that, it was 1975 that I really wanted to go back to
graduate school to go to university teaching at some point. Even though I
enjoyed every day in the newsroom and increasingly responsible positions.
In those days, there were only about 15 universities in the country that
have doctoral programs in journalism or mass communication. And most of
those were in the Midwest and I applied at and looked into the University
of Wisconsin, the University of Iowa and Southern Illinois. I've never
been to Carbondale Illinois in my life going in that probably would have
been my third choice. But, but like a lot of people who undertake doctoral
studies, it's all about the professors who were there at the time and the
, and the areas that you're most interested in. And uh my specialization
was media law and media history was blessed there. Also. Uh my major
professor was Dr Harry Stonecipher, a really good media law scholar with
about 20 years of uh newspaper experience. Uh uh my, we didn't call them
mentors in those days. But as I look back, Harry stonecipher would have
been mine. He also lived into his late eighties and I stayed in touch with
him through the years and uh and, and obviously had great respect for him
and that's why I still call him Dr Stonecipher. Uh And uh I had other
wonderful professors. There took a lot of constitutional history from a
man by the name of M Brown and Carrot who had a law degree and a phd in
history and took constitutional law from a man by the name of Randall
Nelson, uh who had lost his sight in World War Two, came back, earned
three degrees. Uh His wife would read all of the cases to him. Just an
absolutely brilliant man. And he would, he would come into to class with
his dog Greta and uh the class started at nine o'clock in the morning. I
remember it to this day, Greta would bring Doctor Nelson in Greta would go
under the desk in front and the class ended at 10 o'clock and at, at 959
Greta always knew it was about ready to end. So now I've never quite
figured that out and we would take Doctor Nelson out. But again, uh, uh I
considered myself fortunate to be in the right place at the right time
with, with three,
really gifted academics that for whom I also will be forever grateful. I
did my doctoral studies in 21 months and uh and earned my degree and
walked across the stage at Southern Illinois in August of 1977 was
fortunate to have a book contract already from my dissertation that I
finished up in the next few months.
Uh My first teaching job was actually, I didn't look very hard or very
long and we went back to our home state of Nebraska and I taught at the
University of Nebraska at Omaha for two years uh before uh uh coming to
Arizona State in 1979.
What caused you to come here? Well, I mean, like a lot of people, I would
say the weather and it, and it sounds like a flip answer and I, I guess it
is. But, but it, it, it was part of the reason and uh we were in Omaha, uh
we had a uh a uh uh 23
year old daughter at the time and another one on the way and I was
shoveling snow. Omaha is a very hilly community. It was in the throes of
one of the worst winters on record in the Midwest. And it took me about
two hours to shovel the driveway. It was a long driveway leading into our
garage. And so I finished that little chore on a weekend. I went back in
the house, my wife and I are sitting in the living room looking out the
wind comes up and it drifts shut again. And I said, that's it. I've lived
in Nebraska almost all of my life. But I said, you know, I'm gonna, I'm
gonna look for a warm weather school. And in those days in my field of
journalism, you'd look at editor and publisher magazine, which is still
around the day, look at the classified ads sections. In addition to all of
the media jobs that were advertised there, there were also university
postings. And, uh, when I first looked, uh, that would have been January
of 1979. Uh, the University of Miami in Coral Gables had a, had an opening
for an assistant professor specializing in media law. And, uh, uh I, I
applied there and, uh, with within three or four week I received a phone
call in the middle of February from the, the chair of the search committee.
And, uh I had just driven in that morning and the wind chill was 20 below
the temperature was probably around zero. But the wind chill was 20 below
zero in Omaha was, you know, 6 to 9 inches of snow on the ground. And, uh
the chair of the search committee told me who he was said, why he was
calling and wanted to know if I would be interested in coming to Miami for
an interview of which I literally laughed on the telephone and then
explained to him why and told him what the temperature was. And, uh, so
interviewed at the University of Miami and was offered the job. And as
much as I was ready to escape those harsh midwestern winters, I just
didn't think it was a good fit and, uh, uh, uh declined the offer and we
assumed we would just just stay in, in Nebraska until, you know, some
searches were underway at other universities the next year. And, uh, you
advertised this job later than most, as I recall. I think it was April.
And, uh, and so I applied for it. And, uh, a man by the name of Joe Milner
was then the, uh, the head of what was the Department of Mass
Communications. And, uh, the department was still, uh in the College of
the Liberal Arts and Sciences. It was gonna be that July 1, as I recall, I
presume it was at the start of the, the fiscal year July 1, 1979 when the
newly formed College of Public programs, uh would come online. And so when
I interviewed here in April of 1979. Uh uh The Department of Mass
Communication was still in the, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,
even though it knew that it would be in this newly configured college, uh
come that summer. And uh there were probably 13 or 14 faculty members in
the department then a very professionally oriented program. Uh but, but,
but a strong regional program II, I don't, I, I think that is often
overlooked when, when people look at the, at, at the ascension of the
Cronkite School over the years and it was a very solid program at that
time, certainly among the best in the Southwest, uh maybe the best in the
Southwest and, and among the stronger programs in the Western United
States, pretty good sized program then seven or 800 students, not that
many full time faculty to serve that many students. But uh uh it, it was a
, a really good solid program and I felt very good about the people that I
interacted with, uh when I came here for that uh for that interview. And
uh I, I remember yet at least two or three people in the department when
it came toward the end of the interview to, to, to say, OK, now you've got
a proforma interview with, with the Dean of uh Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Uh you know, he doesn't know very much or he doesn't appreciate, he
doesn't know much about journalism has never really appreciated the
department. Don't worry about it. We're gonna be going, uh, uh, in, into a
newly formed college in July. So I took all of that with a grain of salt,
I guess. And I went over and, uh, and, you know, this was a very different
place than not a lot of strong staff support. And I don't even remember
anyone sitting though, somebody was maybe away doing something outside the
office. And I timidly knocked on the door and he was, as I recall, an, a
manual typewriter, he definitely had his back to me and he was working on
his typewriter and come down. I went in and introduced myself to him and,
and, and very, I think he was a geographer by training and very little
small talk. And we weren't very far into that, that interview when, uh, he
, he looked at me, looked me in the eye and says, you know, I can't for
the life of me figure out why a program like that would want to hire
someone like you. Now, when you're 31 years old and, uh, you're interested
in this job, but, you know, that'll make your heart rate accelerate a
little bit. And so I'm, I'm trying, I'm, I'm regrouping m mentally here
and trying not to show it and said, well, I've, uh, you know, I have a, a
developing record of scholarship and, uh, just about to have a book
published and another one under contract and a a and I'm, and I, I
produced some articles at this early juncture of my career and I have some
strong recent newspaper experience and two years of teaching experience
where I've taught a variety of classes and, and, uh, and he said that's my
point. He said that department has been telling me for years that it can't
hire someone with a phd who does scholarship with media experience and
you're going to blow the whole argument. And, um, so I smiled and he
smiled and that was pretty much the end of it. And of course, I went, went
back to Stafford Hall where the department of mass communication was and
right away, a couple of people came in. How was he? How was it? I didn't
tell him and I don't think I ever told anyone in the building in the
ensuing years about that, about that initial interview. But I remember it
, remember it very well anyhow, and was offered the job a couple of weeks
after that. And, uh, and, and we moved here in July of 1979 with a four
year old and a one year old. And, uh, I, I was ready for fall classes in
the fall of 1979.
How big was a su at the time? Describe it a little bit. Well, it was a, it
was a big university even at the time. And, uh, WW with my interest and
background in sports. I was, I Arizona State was a place very well known
to me and, uh, you know, more because of its intercollegiate athletic
programs at that time than probably the academic side. But it was a, a
university that had joined the old pack eight just a couple of years
earlier. Clearly a university on o on the move. I mean, I'll tell you
there was a lot more green grass on the main campus than there than there
is today. But, but I found it uh uh to be a wonderful, wonderful place, an
inviting place. Uh One of those places where you, you just, you went there
and you thought, you know, the, the sky is the limit and uh was, was given
a great deal of freedom early on and quite frankly, after teaching a 44
load at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, I thought I had it pretty
easy and uh uh we had a 33 teaching load and, and it was, it was, it was
just a wonderful, wonderful university with very good people to interact
with. And uh because we were in this newly configured college, I think we
had even more freedom to grow as a program and for young faculty members
to grow.
Joe Millner was the chair. Well, Joe Milner was the chair of the
department. When I was hired, Joe would have extended the offer that
spring of 1979. But that was the last year of Joe's tenure as the head of
the department. And L Dean Bennett was the, uh, the chair of the
department effective, uh, on, uh, o on, on July 1. And, uh, L Dean's
office was, he hadn't moved in when I, I got here in July, uh, uh, always
over preparing, rather than under preparing so I could get ready to go.
And there weren't many people around and in the summertime, and Dean was
still in the office next door to me, down a hallway though he had a window
and I didn't and uh Joe hadn't moved his books out of the, of the main,
out of his office yet. And so L Dean was sort of moving back and forth
between the uh the main office where he would be housed and his office.
And uh L Dean of course, was a wonderful man also, uh you know, now in
charge of a program that clearly was growing with was starved for
resources in many respects. But, but L Dean Bennett was an understated,
wonderful man. One of the most unselfish academics I've ever been around
who was always looking out for others. So Dean was the uh the department
head when I arrived and who became the Dean of public Programs. Well, in
that, uh Linda would probably remember some of the progeny of this, but
Frank S Acton, the general was the, the
wouldn't have been interim because we didn't have anybody before and it
wasn't founding because he wasn't, wasn't permanent. I guess he would have
probably been called the acting dean of the College of Public Programs.
These five units had come together and a search would be conducted during
that 1979 1980 school year for the permanent full time founding dean of
the College of Public Programs. And that was a national search, but an
internal selection was made a very strong candidate from within Nick
Nicholas Henry, who was the Director of the School of Public Affairs. And
Nick then um would have come on board in time for the 1980 81 school year
as I guess the, the founding dean for all intents and purposes of the
College of Public Programs and who was President John Schwa, was the
President Paige Mulholland was the uh the provost though I still, you know
, I, I still have to smile at that. II, I probably was never in the same
room in my first or second year here with John Schwa or, or Paige
Mulholland. I was just an assistant professor trying to do my job and I
was always amused even in those days when people would come by, you know,
grousing about the president grousing about the provost and, you know,
wanting you to sign something. And I don't even know these guys. I'm just
, I'm just happy to be here and I'm trying to teach my courses reasonably
Well,
so how did your career progress from there? Well, again, this was, this
was, it just couldn't have been the university and the college and what
was then a department under dean's leadership couldn't have been more
supportive. Uh I, I came here, you know, with two years of uh assistant
professor, tenure track uh experience at Nebraska Omaha. And uh after two
years here, uh at the conclusion of my fourth year, I was promoted to
associate professor and uh and was made the, the Director of graduate
studies II, I wrote the proposal uh for our master of mass communication
uh program. The unit didn't have a master's program and I would have
written that proposal uh during Christmas break on my electric typewriter
, it wasn't a manual on my IBM Selectric typewriter over the Christmas
break and it was sort of fast tracked or at least I would regard it as
that in today's era and the program was approved. So I was made an
associate professor after two years here and uh was made the director of
graduate studies and uh uh uh wi wi without a reduced teaching load, but
it didn't matter. I, I still thought the 33 was a piece of cake compared
to 44. And uh and then just four years later, in 1985 was promoted to full
professor. And uh and then in dean
decided to go back to the faculty during the 1986 87 school year. And so
by then, we were the Cronkite school that had happened in 1984. And uh
dean decided to go back to the faculty. And so a national search was
conducted that year. I was encouraged to apply by many of my colleagues. I
to this day, uh honestly didn't care. A lot of people might say that, but
I really didn't care if I got the job or not because I was, I was very
happy and fulfilled doing what I was doing. Uh, anyhow, they, they, they
decided on three finalists. One was a, uh a sitting Dean of the College of
Communications at Arkansas State. Uh The other was a, uh, a senior
professor and well regarded researcher at Northwestern University. And uh
, me, uh, but I, uh WW was uh extended the, uh, uh the, the job offer and
uh, and accepted it and, and started, uh, my appointment began on July 1
1987. I was, I was 39 years old and uh, uh it was, uh, uh I, I have to
smile at this too. Given, given my initial interview here where, where the
dean said, why would this place want to hire someone like you? And, uh, I
, I can remember the Cronkite name was there, but it was a name only there.
There was a lot of building that needed to be done and I can chat about
that a little bit later if you like. But uh we uh uh clearly had a lot of
things to get accomplished and really didn't have the resources for it.
But, but, you know, I was happy, happy to take on the challenge and the
university continued to treat me very well. And I think it was 1994 was,
was provided with an endowed professorship, the Cronkite endowment
professorship to go along with being director of the school. So it was a
place that was just very, very supportive of me personally over the years.
And I always had the good fortune to have administrative superiors who
were, who were very strong and very good. And of course, a very loyal and
collegial faculty.