Who are these people? 

The students were a wonderful group. They were the sons and daughters of the World War II generation. That may help to explain it. They had talent and imagination. They worked hard and worked together. They became best friends for life. Some even married each other, as happens when you spend countless hours working together. Most of all, they respected each other and rejoiced in the accom­plishments of their friends. 

In any business that has repeated success over many years, I’ve found that the people shape the period. A lot was going on in the country in the 1960s – the death of a president, the escalation of the war in Vietnam, the civil rights movement. Baylor journalists from that period covered all those things, and the experience helped prepare them for careers and for life. 

This is my recollection of who those people were and what they became. I will leave it to others to memorialize (or remember) our student journalists from more recent years, who are still writing their stories. 

Dave Cheavens and I joined the faculty in the fall of1961. W.J. Thomas was the only other full-time teacher. Tommy Suits taught part time. Later we added Harry Marsh, Reba Camp­bell, Adrian Vaughn, Harold Holder, Ed Kelton, Mike Strick­lin and Oscar Hoffmeyer. Jim McElhaney taught broadcast journalism and ran KWBU. Charlie Reynolds, and later Ralph Davis, joined the student publications staff. C.C. Risenhoover was head of Baylor Public Relations. Frances Darden was in charge of the Baylor news service. Sherry Boyd Castello was editor of The Baylor Line. I am naming all these people because they all had a part in what we were able to accomplish. 

Journalism and student publications were in a World War II prefab just across the bridge on Seventh Street. The build­ing conveniently backed up to the Baylor Press on Eighth Street. Later we moved to Harrington Hall, a former dormi­tory, before moving to the Castellaw building in 1974. 

“Glamour magazine had a national contest for best-dressed coeds, and, thanks to Currier’s photographs, Baylor women were selected for three years in a row.” 

Cheavens had been the AP bureau chief in Austin for many years and was one of the most respected journalists in Texas. While a student at Baylor he was sports editor of The Baylor Lariat. He was on the bus that crashed in Round Rock and killed the 10 basketball players. Funds to build the journalism building were provided by the Castellaw family. Jack Castellaw is one of The Immortal Ten. Cheavens made the involvement of the Castellaws possible. 

Cheavens was married to the former Alice Dawson, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs.J.M. Dawson. A highlight of our time together was when Dawson came for a talk and interview with journalism students. He was one of the founders of both The Lariat and Round-Up. 

A turning point for the journalism program came when we began to win awards at regional and national levels. We dominated the awards for the Southwest Journalism Con­gress for The Lariat and The Iscani, our magazine. One year, a shocked University of Texas editor exclaimed, “Who are these people?” 

Students went all over to cover events. 

Henry Holcomb and Paul Currier went to the University of Mississippi to cover integration there – for which they won an award. 

We won first place in the Society of Professionaljournal­ists awards for coverage of the Kennedy assassination. Ed De­Long and Ray Hubener were the reporters. Paul Currier had taken pictures of the Kennedys the day before in Houston. 

Becky Bolin went to Monticello, Ark., to interview Charles D. Johnson, who founded the Baylor journalism department. 

Mike McKinney went to Houston for a story on Dr. Mi­chael DeBakey for The Iscani. 

Tommy Denton called to report a freshman football game he played in against Rice at Pasadena. 

We started a magazine, The Iscani, named by Larry Nor­wood and edited by Gracie Hatfield, Linda Stewart, Carol Spencer and others. One year it won all but one of the twelve awards in the magazine category at the Southwest Journalism Congress. One year, Tom Harris won first place in magazine writing. 

Two Baylor women were selected as Mademoiselle maga­zine guest editors: Ruth Ann Burris and Carol Spencer. 

Everyone from those years still cherishes the Round Up for its creativity and imagination. Among the editors: Kerry Duke, Sue Hancock, Jean Walke, Merikaye Strunk, Ralph Davis, John Shepelwich. Eddie Ball was editor for two years. Still later, Bob Darden was editor. 

A great photographer, Paul Currier, came our way and recorded just about everything we and Baylor did. Glamour magazine had a national contest for best-dressed coeds, and, thanks to Currier’s photographs, Baylor women were selected for three years in a row. He helped nurture a whole host of student photographers. Among them: Wilton Abel, Kenny Scott, Phil Parks, Gary Bums, John Odom, Richard York, Bill Vetterling, SherynJones, David Peck. 

Sheryn Jones took the photo for the cover of the Last Pic­ture Show album. Pat Washburn was covering a Baylor base­ball game when he came up with a picture that was selected for the last page in Life magazine. 

Along the way Baylor produced an incredible collection of people. 

Here are some of them: 

Newspaper editors, managing editors, city editors, news editors and the like: Bill Hartman, Mike Blackman, Tony Pederson, Henry Holcomb, Tommy Miller, Tommy Lindley, Jim Dager, Larry Sanders, Toby Druin, John Cranfill, Parkey Cheshire, Kay Box, Pat Dougherty, Elaine Wikstrom, Craig Black, Harry Wood, Louise Later, Steve Jetton, Judy Cart­wright, Ann Thompson, John Black, Barry Jones, Rowland Stiteler, Kerry Duke, Mike Phillips, Larry Surratt. 

Bill Hartman is publisher of a chain of newspapers. Mike Blackman was editor of The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Pat Dougherty was editor of The Anchorage Daily News. Mike Phillips was editorial director for Scripps newspapers. Tony Pederson was executive editor of the Houston Chronicle. Henry Holcomb was president of the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia.

Dougherty and his staff won the Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for Public Service. The citation said: “For reporting about the high incidence of alcoholism and suicide among native Alaskans in a series that focused attention on their despair and resulted in various reforms.”

Bill Hartman was the first editor of The Lariat when Cheavens and I arrived in 1961. Later, he and his family set up the Fred Hartman Distinguished Professor of Journalism chair at Baylor in honor of his father, who graduated from Baylor. Bill’s son, also named Fred, was editor of The Baylor Lariat in the fall of 1986. Mike Blackman later held the Hartman chair.

Ella Wall was Lariat editor after Hartman. She and her husband, Lev Prichard, were the primary donors for scholarships honoring Dave Cheavens and David McHam. She, Gracie Hatfield Hilton and Mike Blackman organized an event at Baylor in 2011 that brought together former students to honor Cheavens and me.

After Lev’s passing, Ella founded (with her children and their families) the Prichard Foundation to support the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project at Baylor University. Each year, the Foundation provides the funding in a number of areas, including new digital recording equipment, travel, research and music purchases. Ella also established the Pruit Symposium, which underwrites an annual multi-day seminar on black sacred music, inviting top scholars and musicians to Baylor for several days of presentations, music, and communi­ty-building. Both programs are run by Bob Darden. 

Editorial page editors: Tommy Denton, Mike Blackman and Paul Harral at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Denton was also the editorial page editor in Roanoke, Va., and was presi­dent of the National Conference of Editorial Writers. Nick Jimenez was the long-time editorial page editor of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Jack Simons had the same job at The Iowa Press-Citizen while at the Iowa Writers College. Claude Duncan was the editorial page editor of The Beaumont Enterprise and of newspapers in Florida. 

Tommy Kennedy was a columnist for The Houston Post and Ron Littlepage is a columnist for the Jacksonville Times-Union. Tony Castro was a columnist for the Los Angeles Herald-Exam­iner. Alice Savisky Love was a columnist for the Dallas Times Herald. 

Bob Vickrey and Ted Talley are retired now, but they are writing opinion pieces. Vickrey’s are printed, among other places, in The Waco Tribune-Herald and the Houston Chronicle. Talley writes mainly for the newspaper in Bentonville, Ark. Vickrey won an award for best column writing from the Cali­fornia Newspaper Publishers Association this year. 

Mike Kennedy was a foreign correspondent for The Los An­geles Times and was assistant foreign editor of National Public Radio. Mike Blackman was the foreign editor of The Philadel­phia Inquirer. At a time The Philadelphia Inquirer was winning Pulitzer Prizes annually, Baylor grads were there: Blackman, Henry Holcomb, Tommy Denton, Tommy West, Larry Sur­ratt, David Morrison and Tom Belden. 

Writers of Books: Tom Harris, Tony Castro, Preston Lewis, Yvonne Baskin, Dallas Lee, Bob Darden, Ellen Deben­port, Kay Wheeler Moore. Seven of Harris’ books, including Black Sunday and The Silence of the Lambs, were made into movies. Lewis won awards for his western novels. Louis and Kay Moore own Hannibal Books, based in Garland, Texas. 

Sports writers and editors: John McClain, David McCol­lum, Alan Eskew, 

Lester Zedd, Doug Bedell, Tony Castro. David Cawood was the assistant executive director of public relations at the NCAA. David Pickle was director of communications and executive editor of the NCAA Champion magazine. McClain, who writes for the Houston Chronicle, is the dean of NFL writers and is a member of the NFL Hall of Fame. He also can be heard on radio in Houston, Waco and Nashville. David McCollum may hold the record for the most words written by a sports writer, mostly for the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway, Ark. He has been chosen as Arkansas Sportswriter of the Year and is a member of the Arkansas Sportswriters Hall of Fame.

Mike Eakin started at Baylor, transferred to the University of Texas and became editor of The Daily Texan. 

Jesse Degollado has been a reporter at KSAT TV in San Antonio since 1984. Roma Reavis became a radio celebrity with her husband, Don Wade, at WLS in Chicago. Both Degollado and Reavis have won numerous awards. Rick Bradfield led an award-winning staff as news director at KWTX-TV in Waco. 

We had an entry to wire services, especially United Press International: 

Ed Delong, Kay Brown, Preston Kirk, Paul Harral, Mike Kennedy, Tom Belden, Tommy Brooks, Tommy Miller, Ellen Debenport, Larry Surratt, Tommy Kennedy, Kay Wheeler Moore, Ron Littlepage. Delong, Harral and Belden covered the space program. 

Bob Gassaway covered Vietnam for The Associated Press. Tom Harris, Dallas Lee and Yvonne Baskin also worked at the AP. Sharon Herbaugh died while covering the war in Afghan­istan for the AP. 

Paul Parsons worked for both UPI and the AP. He is now professor and dean of the School of Communications at Elon University. He served as president of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communications from 2010 to 2011. 

Religion writers/editors: Louis Moore, Terry Mattingly, Lilla Ross, Toby Druin and John Rutledge. When he worked at the Houston Chronicle, Moore was named the outstanding religion writer in America and was president of the Religion Newswriters Association. He later worked at the Foreign Mission Board. Druin was editor of The Baptist Standard. John Rutledge worked there for many years. Mattingly has writ­ten a national syndicated column on religion since 1986 (see GetReligion.org). Dorothy Spleth Linthicum has been editor of a quarterly magazine, Episcopal Teacher, for almost 20 years. She teaches at Virginia Episcopal Theological Seminary. 

Rowland Stiteler was editor of D Magazine, Houston City Magazine and a magazine in Orlando, Fla. Susan White has been for years the editor of the SMU magazine. David Mor­rison is vice president for communication and publications at Brenau University in Gainesville, Ga. Craig Black was an editor at Better Homes and Gardens. 

Many teachers (at various levels): Bob Darden, Maggie Bigham, Tom Belden, Paul Parsons, Pat Washburn,Jack Simons, Mike Stricklin, Ed Kelton, Barry Jones, Rick Brad­field, Julie Kennedy, Tony Pederson, Ray Hubener, Martha Hughes, Darla Prudom, Jon Ben Sutter, Ron Hurt, Jon Fisher, Kathi Fisher, Beverly Narum, Vicki Klaras, Paula Cozart, Jan Hardberger, John Sellers, Everett Robinson, Louis Natalicio, Stewart Byois, Meme Drumwight, Jerry Stephens, Bob Gas­saway, Ronald Stovall, Dorothy Spleth, Carolyn Owens, Rick Bradfield, Jan Whitt. Jean Walke was an administrator at both Dallas County and Houston community colleges. 

Tony Pederson holds the Belo chair and is chair of the journalism department at SMU. He has been a Pulitzer juror and served as president of the Inter American Press Associa­tion. He is active in journalism education in Latin America. 

Thanks to Murray Neal and Dave Campbell, Baylor journalism graduates from other eras, a great many of our students worked at The Waco News-Tribune and Times-Herald (we had separate morning and afternoon newspapers then) while in school and after: Tommy West, Roger Cantrell, Ernie Makovy, Mike Kennedy, Pat Taggart, Tom Harris, Barry Jones, Mike Phillips, Nancy Stiteler, Sherry Fudge, Jack Simons, John Cranfill, Bob Dye, Lester Zedd, Tony Pederson,John Mc­Clain,John Black, Bruce Westbrook,Jim Dagar, Bob Darden. 

Others covered Friday night football. Several staffers and other Baylor students were involved in covering the crash of a Braniff airliner near Dawson in 1968. The story won first place for breaking news in the Texas Associated Press contest. 

Roland Arriola became mayor of Waco and then vice president at the University of Texas/Pan American. He was a White House Fellow and was selected by the Jaycees as one of the 10 outstanding young men in America. 

Joe Robison became baseball coach at the Air Force Academy and later a scout for the New York Yankees. Tommy Denton played football at Baylor. He, Jack Simons and Paul Rowlett served in Vietnam. 

Three of the students from this period became members of the Baylor board of trustees: Ella Wall Prichard, Gracie Hatfield Hilton and Toby Druin. 

And, a long list of writers, reporters, copy editors, etc. Such a list of course includes people previously mentioned. And, others, in an effort not to leave anyone out: Tommy West, Ernie Makovy, Chris Evans, Roger Cantrell, Ken Askew, Fred Binkley, Rebecca Mason, Dennis Neighbors, Dean Eubank, Ron Hurt, Bob Dye, Sue Dye, Elaine Wikstrom, Gary Christian, Elizabeth Mcllhaney, Pat Taggart, Kay Wheeler, Lilla Ross, Bruce Westbrook, Nancy Stiteler, John Pearce, Beverly Narum, Pat Taggart, Rick Hale, Merikaye Strunk, Pat Bonnett, Bill Harris, Anne Miller, Bill Waldrop, Sara Gillen­tine, Ruth Ann Burris, Bill McCleary, Oscar Dupree, Gwen McNelladge, Ben Selman, Margie Hoffman, Beth Curlin, Becky Bolin, Dana Middleton, Marsha Comstock, Nelson Norman, Larry Taylor, Kiki Dreyer, Paul Felty, Sue Ann True, Stewart Byois, Stuart Heady, Kim Watson, Buddy Ives, Bill McCleary, Betty Dillard, Julie Hickerson, Cindy Musick, Denny Truitt, Mike McKinney, Nancy Flowers, Carolyn Led­better, Debbie Potts, Burke Watson, Elaine Selcaig, Judy Gos­sett, Jane Johnson, Linda Little, Greg Watson, Julie Hickerson, Willie White, Larry Taylor, Marvin Hogan. And many, many more. 

People transferred to Baylor to study journalism: Gracie Hatfield, Toby Druin, Tommy Miller, David Morrison, Claude Duncan, Martha Hughes, Rowland Stiteler, Larry Sanders, Roland Arriola, Barry Jones, Frances Darden, Kerry Duke, Pat Bonnet, Greg Jones, Ronald Stovall, Doug Bedell, and Roger Rhinehart. Luis Natalicio (Brazil) and Stein Stabrun (Sweden) were foreign students. Ken Askew came from Japan. 

They went to graduate school at Columbia, University of California, Northwestern, Ohio State, Iowa, Texas, Syracuse and other places. Louis Moore, Chris Evans and Katherine Cornell went to seminary. Tony Castro and Pat Dougherty attended Harvard as Nieman Fellows. 

Mike Walker, Dave Vereke, David Fuller, Edee Holleman and Ralph Calhoun became lawyers. The late Curtis Clogston was both a lawyer and a doctor. 

And politicians: Kay Brown, Betty Kirbo Denton and Er­nest Istook. Brown is a member of the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame. 

Ken Askew was a speechwriter for Senator Sam Nunn and President George HW. Bush. You can find his account of this in an online article, Confessions of a Wounded Speechwriter. 

Several of our friends joined the Peace Corps. Ray Hubener went to Cameroon, Mike and Chere Stricklin to Brazil and Parkey and Carol Cheshire to India. 

Sherry Smith Matthews owns Sherry Matthews Ad­vocacy Marketing in Austin. Roslyn Dawson Thompson is head of the Dallas Wom­en’s Foundation. Michael Jenkins was president and managing director of the Dallas Summer Musicals for more than 20 years. Betty Lynn Wall McHam ran the Shell Foundation. Judy Connatser was advertising Prichard on deadline. director at Neiman Marcus.  Willie Waldrop and his wife, Charlotte-Anne Lucas, operate NOWCastSA.com, an online community news service in San Antonio. 

Musicians: Roger Rhinehart and Jim Gordon. Preston Kirk and his wife, Ronda Dale Kirk, are actors. 

And a minister: Ellen Debenport. 

Others took a course or two, didn’t major in journalism, but were close to the program: Rod Surratt, Price Danieljr., Larry Norwood, Fowler West, Art Goolesbee, Sam Attlesey, Larry Culpepper, Ed Baker, Pruitt Ashworth, David Atnip, Sid Smith, Beth Beckelhymer, Kirk Purcell, Tom Haas and Marjorie Morris Scardino. Scardino became CEO of Pearson, the British company that publishes The Economist and The Financial Times. 

We took trips to Washington and New York between semesters in 1972 and 1973. We attended plays on Broadway and took in the sights. Most of the students had never been to either place.

The two years kind of run together. 

We met many celebrities. Walter Cronkite talked with us until just seconds before he went on the air. At the Today Show we met Joe Garagiola and while visiting with him Barbara Walters came off the set and told us to quiet down. We also met Frank Blair and Frank McGee. Hal Wingo, class of 1957, had the group to his office at Life magazine. We went to the Dick Cavett Show. Bill Moyers, by then doing the Bill Moyers Journal on PBS, invited Ted Talley, Kay Brown, Kim Dawson and Nelson Nor­man to his home on Long Island for lunch. Talley met Harry Reasoner in the hall at ABC. Gail Sheehy invited some of us to her apartment for a visit. 

In Washington we toured the White House, the capitol, the Smithson­ian, etc. We even got to peek into the Oval Office. We shook hands with Press Secretary Ron Ziegler, but he was hesitant to answer questions. At the Defense Department we visited with one of our own, Ed DeLong, who was there for UPI. 

When the Kingston Trio came to Waco Hall, the group met with Lariat staff members backstage. Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary spoke with a Lariat reporter. John Denver met with students backstage before his concert. Don McLean gave a long interview to Nelson Norman. 

Speakers who came to campus often met with journalism students. Memorable occasions involvedJames Dickey,Jon Voight, Al Capp, Sander Vanocur and Art Buchwald. Students met Bill Moyers, took him to the Lariat offices for a visit and then to his hotel. 

More than once students ran into Van Cliburn when he was visiting his cousin, Bob Reid of the history department. Paul Currier made a great photograph of the two of them with Pat Neff Hall in the background. 

A Lariat reporter met Mickey Mantle when he came to a Baylor track meet to present watches to the winners. Once, someone said that Ted Lyons, a Baylor graduate and another member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, was talking with people behind Harrington Hall. We went out to meet him and Larry Taylor did a story for The Lariat. 

Craig Black interviewed Willie Nelson, in part about his time at Baylor: “I majored in dominoes. I wasn’t a good student. I was failing everything – I think -failing in everything.” 

At spring break in 1973, we went to Covington, La., and spent the afternoon with Walker Percy. 

The Lariat had a retreat at Lake Whitney about a week before school started, and an argument still persists over who won the games of Hearts and Spades. Our end-of-the-year banquets were usually at an SPJST hall in West, thanks to Ernie Makovy. Although one year we went to the Stagecoach Inn. 

We sold programs at the early Willie Nelson Fourth ofJuly concerts. 

And, a good many of the men belonged to the NoZe Bro­herhood. Unfortunately, we are not able to reveal their real names. We do recall stories, such as when the NoZe had its formal at the city dump and got there on a retired fire truck. Rumor has it that many of our NoZe brothers helped put out the Rope. 

Oh, by the way, The Lariat beat Student Congress in football and would have won in intramural basketball except for Dutch Schroeder. Joe Robison, the best pitcher on Baylor’s baseball team, was playing for The Lariat. Schroeder walked in, saw Robison and ordered him off the court. In spite of that, Schroeder remains one of our greatest supporters. 

A Postscript: Unfortunately we have lost too many people along the way. Among them: Dave Cheavens, Adrian Vaughan, Tommy West, Paul Currier, Bob Rothe, Alan Wil­liams, Michael Eakin, David Cawood, Claude Duncan, Sid Smith, Ernest Cochran, Price DanielJr., Linda Stewart, Elaine Selcraig, Katrina Hardberger, Jim McElhaney, Ernie Makovy, Rod Surratt, Kathi Fisher, Tommy Miller, Mike Walker, Boyd Hampton, Curtis Clogston, Kirk Purcell, Nancy Flowers, Mar­vin Hogan, Bob Gassaway, Sharon Herbaugh – and special friends from the 1950s: Don Castello and Hollis Biddle. And Lev Prichard, a very special friend. 

If I have missed or misrepresented anyone or anything I apologize. My memory is not as good as it once was. Also, I’m leaving out hundreds of stories that the people in this account could tell. I do want to emphasize what a privilege it has been knowing all of you. You enriched each other, and especially me. You made Baylor a better place. When people ask about our time together at Baylor, this is the way I remember it.