Rendering by Boucher Mouchka Larson

by Melissa Johnson, graduate student

A member of one of Oregon's premier pioneer journalist families will be immortalized in the School of Journalism and Communication with the construction of the Willis S. Duniway Journalism Resource Center.

Construction of the center, to be housed on the first floor of the east wing of Allen Hall, begins in late summer. The third phase of a $6-million building renovation, the Duniway Resource Center was made possible by a $400,000 gift from Dorothy Duniway, the widow of 1932 UO graduate Willis S. Duniway.

The center will serve as a study and information resource area for 1,100 journalism and communication majors and pre-majors, as well as 70 graduate students.

In addition to providing students with the latest periodicals and reserve materials for classes, the center will have six computer terminals dedicated to Internet and database access, as well as "wired" study tables with computer hookups for laptop computers. It also will provide much-needed space for small group meetings.

"This is a resource that is really going to be a center for student study, research and activity," said Dean Tim Gleason. "It creates a facility that has capabilities that we've never had in the J-school."

Duniway was an award-winning wire service bureau chief for the United Press (now United Press International) in both Salem and Seattle from 1934 to 1942. He also served as a U.S. Naval Reserve public information officer during World War II.

After his discharge in 1946, Duniway wrote briefly for The Los Angeles Examiner before moving into the public relations field--initially working for Lockheed Aircraft and later as director of the University of Southern California News Bureau.

He graduated from the journalism school in 1932. While at UO, he was editor-in-chief of the Oregon Daily Emerald. After graduation, he wrote for the Eugene Daily News and later for The Oregonian.

"This stands as a very wonderful memorial to him and a testimony to his commitment and Mrs. Duniway's commitment to journalism education," said Gleason. "For the school to have this link to the history of Oregon and Oregon journalism is an appropriate and wonderful event for us."

The Duniway legacy has spanned four generations in Oregon. Abigail Scott Duniway, who was Oregon's hardest-working suffragette, helped changed the face of politics and journalism in this state.

Abigail Scott Duniway began her 41-year struggle to help earn women the right to vote by starting her own newspaper, The New Northwest, in 1871. Duniway traveled and stumped tirelessly for the cause in the face of opposition from her own brother, Harvey Scott, and his influential editorials in The Oregonian.

Male Oregon voters got behind the cause in 1912 with the passage of the State Equal Suffrage Proclamation. Abigail wrote the proclamation and was the first woman to register to vote in Oregon. That same year, the journalism school at the University of Oregon was born.

Both Willis and his wife, Dorothy, retired from USC in 1975 and moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, where he died in 1992.