Thirty distinguished alumni and faculty have been honored since 1998

Ann Curry

When Ann Curry started out as a television reporter, more than a few obstacles stood in her way. As woman, she was entering an industry where a news producer told her that women couldn't be reporters because they lacked news judgment and couldn't carry the camera. As a woman of color, she was entering an industry where, as she told Proud magazine, no one on the news shows she watched as a child even
remotely resembled her.

"But the one thing anybody who knows me well
will say about me," Curry explains, "is that if you give Ann Curry a challenge, if you tell Ann Curry she can't do something, then she is going to show you that she can."

Curry's determination was nurtured by parents who when faced with their own obstacles, refused to give up. Her mother, a Japanese rice farmer's daughter, and her father, a son of a single parent during the Depression, got married despite the racism of the time and raised five children, encouraging them to aim high. Heeding her father's advice to do work that made a difference in people's lives, Curry found increasing success in a fiercely competitive industry.

Curry has been widely recognized for her work. Among many awards, she has earned two Emmys--one for her coverage of the October 1987 Los Angeles earthquake and another for her coverage of the explosion of a gas pipeline in San Bernadino--as well as four Golden Mike Awards. She received the NAACP Award for Excellence in Broadcasting and the Japanese American National Museum Award for Excellence.

"Ann is the consummate professional," says Al Roker, one of her Today Show co-hosts.

Everette Dennis, '64

Everette Dennis

Trying to sum up Everette Dennis' career in a few words is, as Bernard Kalb says, "like trying to miniaturize hugeness." Most simply, Dennis may be one of the most important figures in modern journalism.

Dennis' leadership skills were apparent early when the young man from the Oregon coast became the editor of The Oregon Daily Emerald. After graduating from UO, he went on to earn a master's degree at Syracuse and a doctorate at Minnesota. He then began a distinguished teaching career at Kansas State that eventually led him to the University of Minnesota, Northwestern, Columbia and Fordham University.

As dean of the School of Journalism and Communication, he put the School on the path to the future with his work on the Oregon Report. The report, a pivotal work that continues to influence journalism education across the country, inspired him to create the Gannett Center for Media Studies (later the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center). In turn, the men and women chosen as fellows went on to produce work that explored all aspects of journalism.

Beyond making it possible for others to study the field, Dennis has been a prolific scholar. He has written or co-authored more than 30 books on the media and establish the Media Studies Journal. Recognized as one of the most widely quoted experts on the media, Dennis has served as the president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Communication and founding president of the American Academy in Berlin.

Today, he is the Director of the Center for Communication at Fordham University and its Felix E. Larkin Distinguished Professor of Media and Communication Industries. He also serves as executive director and board member of the International Longevity Center.

Of all of his contributions to the field, the one that his colleagues note most often is his willingness to help both his own students and fellows as well as the students and fellows of other institutions.

"Everette Dennis is an extraordinary exemplar of a public intellectual, distinguished by serious scholarship, the ability to articulate and synthesize ideas, and a gift for transforming ideas into action," says Dr. Leo Bogart, sociologist and media scholar. "His broad vision and eclectic interests have taken him far beyond the field of journalism education. He is a marvelous moderator of disparate views, a caring and unselfish mentor, and an indefatigable organizer. He gets things done, he makes people think, and he does it all with a wonderful smile."

Eleanor Aldrich Forrester, '37

Eleanor Aldrich Forrester

It is probably no exaggeration to say that Eleanor Aldrich Forrester was born with newspaper ink in her veins. Her father, Ed Aldrich, owned and served as editor of the East Oregonian, and young Eleanor was quick to follow in the family business. As a high school student in Pendleton, she interviewed the superintendent of schools for the paper. Eleanor also filled in at the business office, learning the skills that would serve her well as she progressed in the business side of the industry.

During Christmas break from the UO, Eleanor met EO newsman Bud Forrester. Their marriage launched one of the most effective newspaper tandems in Oregon.

Just after World War II, with Eleanor heading the business side and Bud handling the news side, the Forresters put out a weekly in North Bend. In 1950, following the death of Eleanor's father, the two took over running the East Oregonian with Eleanor's sister, Amy Aldrich Bedford. Despite lean times, they started motor routes to deliver the paper to neighboring communities and in 1960 bought the first offset web press west of St. Louis, Mo.

During more than 20 years at the East Oregonian, Eleanor played a key role in the development of the paper. C. K. "Pat" Patterson, corporate general manager of the East Oregonian Publishing Company, remembers that "Eleanor has almost always been the reliable, clear and sometimes hard-headed voice of business while her husband was a pure journalist. The business mattered to him, but essentially he was a journalist at heart. Together, they balanced those interests."

They also raised two journalist sons--Mike, publisher of Capital Press in Salem and former editor at Pendleton and Astoria, and Steve, publisher-editor of The Daily Astorian and former Washington correspondent.

In 1973 the Forresters took on The Daily Astorian, which Eleanor was involved in until her retirement in 1983. Eleanor and her sister Amy remain on the board of the company, which includes the Blue Mountain Eagle, in John Day; The Wallowa Chieftain, in Enterprise; and The Chinook Observer, in Long Beach, Wash.; in addition to the East Oregonian, The Daily Astorian and Capital Press.

"As part of a family-owned operation, she and Bud were great believers in preserving the independence of the local newspaper," says Phil Bladine, chairman of the board of Oregon Lithoprint, publisher of the McMinnville News Register. "There is no question that Eleanor has been a real driving force in the whole East Oregonian organization."

Richard Johnston, '36

Richard Johnston

For Richard Johnston, it was all about words. Whether he was at UO reading books that weren't even assigned or earning the nickname "The Blue Pencil" for his line editing at Sports Illustrated, it was the play of words--the editing--that fascinated Johnston.

Bob Creamer, a longtime colleague at Sports Illustrated, remembers that "for years, Dick would edit every single piece of copy that came in." Writers who worked with him had little need for anyone else to read their copy.

Johnston literally learned his craft in the trenches. After stints at The Register-Guard and The Portland Journal, he joined United Press International in 1939 and was sent to the Pacific in 1943. During World War II, he reported from Pearl Harbor, the Gilbert Islands, the Marshall Islands, Saipan, Tianan and Peleliu. He was also aboard the battleship Missouri for the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay. Johnston would later recall these experiences in his history of the 2nd Marine Division, Follow Me!

In 1946, Johnston joined Time magazine and then moved to Life as a text editor. In 1953, he was asked to join a team that would create a sports magazine. He scouted and hired editors and writers for the start-up, and once Sports Illustrated was up and running in 1954, he oversaw the editorial voice of the publication. Today the magazine has a circulation of 3.3 million and is considered the country's premier sports publication.

Johnston eventually became executive editor--the number two person at Sports Illustrated. In 1970, after 17 years at the magazine, he retired but continued to contribute as a free-lance correspondent for several more years.

"Dick always said that if Sports Illustrated were to make a life for itself, it had to be well-written," Andy Crichton, a friend and SI colleague, says. "There was a special quality at the magazine in those early years, and Dick was very much responsible for that."

Johnston died in 1981.

Jonathan Marshall, MS '62

Jonathan Marshall

While Jonathan Marshall has pursued many interests in his life, he has sought only one goal: useful work. And for much of his career, that work involved increasing the public's access to information and defending the First Amendment.

Marshall's interest in freedom of information began during his early years in as editor and publisher of the Scottsdale Progress in Arizona. After the Scottsdale City Council held a secret meeting and awarded a large contract without public discussion, Marshall and the Progress led a campaign to revise the state's open meeting law and to get a public records law on the books. Their efforts helped set a precedent for today's stronger freedom of information laws.

Marshall's career as a journalist was distinguished. He was inducted into the Arizona Newspapers Hall of Fame; has twice been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; and was granted the Arizona Press Club's Distinguished Service Award, the Arizona Newspaper Association's Master Editor Publisher Award, and the Society of Professional Journalists' national First Amendment Award. He served as president of the Arizona Newspaper Association and chairman of the National Newspaper Association's Freedom of Information Committee.

When Jonathan and his wife, Maxine, sold the Progress after 25 years of serving as a liberal voice in largely conservative Arizona, they created the Marshall Fund. Since its inception, the Marshalls have contributed millions to causes that have been historically ignored by other philanthropists.

Marshall's name rings regularly through the halls at the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication. In 1994, Marshall established the Jonathan Marshall Award for Innovative Teaching in Journalism and Communication, and in 1999, he endowed a faculty position, the Jonathan Marshall First Amendment Chair.

"Jonathan Marshall has served Arizona well, first as a crusading publisher and now as a gadfly columnist who offers both wisdom and pointed commentary," says Paul Schatt, Northeast Valley editor at the Arizona Republic.

W.F.G. Thacher

W.F.G. Thacher

Impeccable. A humorist and a wit. William Franklin Goodwin Thacher followed his passion for creative writing to a lifelong interest in advertising and the establishment of a new discipline at the University of Oregon.

Thacher came to the University of Oregon in 1914 as a professor of rhetoric. In 1917, he taught the University's first advertising course--a copywriting class in the English Department. In 1932, he was named a professor of English and Advertising and from there he went on to build the advertising program in the School of Journalism and Communication.

Through his pioneering work in the School, Thacher provided the foundation for the current advertising curriculum, which enjoys a national reputation for excellence. Today's students continue to be the beneficiaries of his belief that "the fundamental quality of every good ad is sincerity--simple, downright honesty. Next comes enthusiasm, the quality that makes truth glow and shine."

As a teacher, Thacher cared deeply about the professional devel-opment of his students. He believed that education was essentially a personal interaction between a teacher and student, and he kept in touch with his students, faithfully corresponding with them long after they had taken his courses.

John Hulteng, former dean of the School and a member of the Hall of Achievement, said that Thacher was "at the same time gentle and demanding, courtly in his approach, yet insistent on the highest standards of performance."

Thacher organized campus affiliates of the two leading national professional societies for advertising students. Alpha Delta Sigma, the men's advertising club, named its chapter for him. He later became president of the national organization and remains its only lifetime member.

Thacher received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Princeton. His early career included writing for the Pacific Magazine.

W. F. G. Thacher died in 1972.