Abstract
Raymond Simon
Reprinted with permission from Raymond Simon Institute (2017, November 9). Public relations educational pioneer Raymond Simon 1915-2017.
Raymond Simon, professor emeritus of public relations at Utica College, died Nov. 7, 2017. He was 102 years old and one of the last surviving educators from the post-WWII era that saw the rapid growth of college public relations programs in the 1940s and 1950s. He is considered a pioneer in public relations education for his public relations textbooks. His teaching career spanned nearly four decades at Utica College and he received the college’s outstanding teaching award twice – a record.
He was the sixth recipient of PRSA’s outstanding educator award. Professor Simon was among PR Week’s 100 most influential 20th century people in public relations. Simon’s contributions to education included developing one of the first full-fledged public relations undergraduate curriculums; authoring the first public relations-specific classroom textbooks for writing/promotions, campaigns/case studies, in addition to a textbook for the principles course. He also helped develop the PRSA’s APR exam.
Under his leadership, Utica College was an alpha chapter of the PRSSA in 1968. His students described their education as being “Simonized” and many recall his dedication to students – finding them first jobs and providing career advice.
Utica College is collecting memories/tributes about Professor Simon for inclusion in a memorial booklet. If you would like to contribute to this effort please send your information to Professor Patricia Swann,
Wayne Danielson
By Paula M. Poindexter
Wayne Danielson, who was born Dec. 6, 1929 in Burlington, Iowa and died Oct. 31, 2017, influenced four generations of journalism and communication students, educators, and professionals. Between 1956 and 2003, when he retired, Dr. Danielson, who earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Iowa and Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford, taught journalism at four universities, including Stanford, Wisconsin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Texas at Austin (Curriculum Vitae, n.d.). He also served as dean of the School of Journalism at North Carolina between 1964 and 1969, and between 1969 and 1979, Dr. Danielson was dean of the College of Communication, now named Moody College of Communication, at the University of Texas at Austin (Curriculum Vitae, n.d.).
Dr. Danielson’s impact on our field is not limited to the universities where he was a professor, researcher, and dean. He also consulted on journalism programs at Michigan, Indiana, Tennessee, Howard and five other universities. He served on editorial boards for three journals and he was the founding editor of Journalism Abstracts, which published abstracts of Ph.D. dissertations and master’s theses in journalism and communication. Dr. Danielson was not just an academic; he also was a reporter and research manager at the San Jose Mercury News. Additionally, he consulted with newspapers as they introduced computers and other technologies into their newsrooms.
Through his teaching, research, consulting, leadership, and service, Dr. Danielson was on the cutting edge of 20th century innovations that are taken for granted today. He was one of the journalism and communication pioneers in computer applications, computer programs, readability of news stories, and online distance learning. In fact, “his research in computers and content analysis led to the development of more than 30 tools such as readability indices, automatic news indexes and stylistic advice to authors” (Hundley, n.d.). Maxwell McCombs, professor emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism, observed the Danielson computer innovations up close when he joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, when Wayne Danielson was dean.
“When I arrived at Chapel Hill in 1967, Wayne introduced me to an array of computer applications for research and teaching. This was decades before computing became commonplace in schools of journalism. These early innovations are a lasting tribute to Wayne’s creative vision for our field.”
That creative vision no doubt influenced Wayne Danielson in 1971 when as president of AEJ, now AEJMC, he delivered an address that focused on the next generation of journalists and the important role that journalism educators would play in preparing future journalists to report on the “enormous challenges” facing the country (Danielson, 1971).
Dr. Danielson’s legacy is not limited to the generations of students he taught, young scholars he mentored, news organizations and journalism programs he consulted with, or universities where he was a dean or at AEJMC when he was president. Dr. Danielson’s legacy is also in his journal articles, books, book chapters, reports, computer programs, and decades of honors bestowed on him.
The University of Iowa, his alma mater, inducted him into their Hall of Fame in 1988, joining inductees Wilbur Schramm, George Gallup, and David Manning White who developed gatekeeping theory (Hall of Fame, n.d.). In 1993, Dr. Danielson was awarded AEJMC’s Paul J. Deutschmann Award for Excellence in Research, which has recognized communication scholars from Wilbur Schramm and Melvin DeFleur to agenda-setting theorists Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw.
And in 2000, he was named the third recipient of the Civitas Award, which was established at the University of Texas at Austin, to recognize “dedicated and meritorious service to the University above and beyond the regular expectations of teaching, research, and service.” Dr. Danielson’s meritorious service, which is archived in the Wayne Danielson Papers at the Briscoe History Center, includes reports from the committees he chaired on faculty computers, integration of information and technology, Internet services, and multicultural education (Guide to Wayne Danielson Papers, n.d.)
Dr. Danielson’s legacy is also evident in the Moody College of Communication’s Wayne Danielson Award (n.d.), which was created in 1991 at the University of Texas at Austin. The list of recipients, which reads like a “Who’s Who of Journalism and Communication Scholars,” includes George Gerbner who developed cultivation theory, Everett Rogers who advanced diffusion of innovations theory and its applications in journalism and communication, Elihu Katz who elevated “uses and gratifications” theory, and Ben H. Bagdikian, former dean of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, author of The Media Monopoly, and former Washington Post editor who obtained the Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg that The Post published in 1971 (Schudel, 2016). Other recipients of the Wayne Danielson Award include Oscar Gandy, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Robert Entman, Sharon Dunwoody, Michael Schudson, and Pamela Shoemaker (Wayne Danielson Award, n.d.).
Although Wayne Danielson, journalism educator and administrator, industry consultant, past AEJMC President, pioneer, and visionary, is no longer with us, his legacy lives on and is visible to new generations of journalism scholars, students, and professionals. His official photo as the second dean of the Moody College of Communication hangs in the Dean’s Dealey Family Conference Room on the 5th floor of the Belo Center for New Media at the University of Texas at Austin. His contributions and honors live on the Moody College of Communication website (Hundley, n.d.) and in the annual AEJMC conference program under Deutschmann Award recipients and AEJMC presidents. And every year, Wayne Danielson will be remembered as a “visionary scholar and leader” when his namesake award is bestowed on another journalism and communication scholar for “distinguished contributions to communication scholarship” (Hundley, n.d.; Wayne Danielson Award, n.d.).