’s Distinguished Alumni

Since the Parthenon’s inception in 1898, hundreds of talented students have logged hours working for Marshall’s student newspaper. Many have gone on to successful careers in a wide variety of fields. The following is a list of some of the most accomplished individuals who have worked in the media industry in the last 125 years.

NELSON BOND, class of 1934, is considered one of the founders of modern fantasy and science fiction. His work includes seven books, three plays, six motion pictures and more than 50 network television plays.

JIM COMSTOCK, class of 1934, was nationally recognized for his wise and witty writings about Appalachian heritage. He spent 20 years publishing materials for the West Virginia Heritage Encyclopedia and the West Virginia Hillbilly, a critically acclaimed newspaper with worldwide followers.

JACK MAURICE, class of 1935, was the Pulitzer Prizewinning editor of the Charleston Daily Mail from 1950 to 1978. He received the Pulitzer in 1975 for his editorials about the Kanawha County textbook controversy. He also won the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi national award for distinguished service in journalism.

GORDON KINNEY, class of 1941, began his career in radio before joining the Ad Council, an institution that produces public service announcements for nonprofit organizations and distributes them to some 33,000 media outlets each year. Kinney rose to vice president of the Ad Council and worked on campaigns to combat polio, fight drug abuse and “Keep America Beautiful.”

GAY PAULEY SEHON, class of 1942, had a stellar career in New York working for United Press International (UPI). In 1977, she became the first female senior editor at UPI. She also won the Matrix Award from the New York Chapter of Women in Communications for her reporting on the People’s Republic of China.

MARVIN STONE, class of 1947, was the editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report from 1976 to 1989. Due to his extraordinary generosity to Marshall, the School of Journalism and Mass Communications library was named in his honor.

BURL OSBORNE, class of 1960, had a 20-year career with the Associated Press before serving as editor and publisher of the Dallas Morning News. In 1992, he was the recipient of the National Press Foundation’s George David Beveridge Jr. Award for Editor of the Year.

JOHN HACKWORTH, class of 1971, worked as the editor of the Sun newspapers and won a Pulitzer Prize in 2016 for a series of editorials about the beating death of an inmate at the Charlotte (North Carolina) Correctional Institution.

JOHN WILSON, class of 1972, was an editor at the Miami Herald, the Washington Times and the Detroit News before serving as the assistant science editor at the New York Times for nearly 10 years. He was also a founding member of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. students, to the point that it transformed other faculty, Arnold said. This was not accomplished through preaching, he said, but by setting an example.

ANGELA DODSON , class of 1973, began her career at the Huntington Advertiser and would go on to become the first African American woman to serve as a senior editor at the New York Times. She also authored the book Remember the Ladies: Celebrating Those Who Fought for Freedom at the Ballot Box, highlighting women’s impact on U.S. politics.

SEAN CALLEBS, class of 1983, was a correspondent for CNN for 20 years before moving to CGTN. He has won numerous awards for his news reporting, including a national Emmy for his coverage in the aftermath of the 1993 Mississippi River flood. He is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker and a United States diplomat to Afghanistan.

PETE RUEST, class of 1997, went on to work at some of the nation’s leading ad agencies including the Martin Agency, Young and Rubicam, Wieden+Kennedy and Energy BBDO where he was a vice president. Throughout his award-wining career he has worked on campaigns for Nike, Timberland, NASCAR, AnheuserBusch, Wrigley, Sears and Bayer.

BRENT CUNNINGHAM, class of 1988, spent 15 years as a media critic while serving as managing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review. He has written for the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Vox, CNN.com and more. His critical writing about the media was included in the anthology Our Unfree Press: 100 Years of Radical Media Criticism.

MARK TRUBY , class of 1994, was an award-winning reporter and editor at the Detroit News before being named chief communications officer of the Ford Motor Company.

LOU SAHADI, class of 1953, went on to a highly successful sports writing career in New York City. He was a contributor to the New York Times and New York Post, and authored 26 books including the official biographies of Willie Mays, Don Shula, Hank Stram and Johnny Unitas. He was also an independent magazine publisher of such titles as Pro Football Monthly Pro Boxing Scene, Pro Hockey Scene, Pro Baseball Scene, Pro Basketball Scene and more.

WAYNE FAULKNER, class of 1972, was the executive editor of the Parthenon at the time of the Marshall plane crash. He helped put out a special 24-page edition to mark that tragic event. He went on to work for newspapers in West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami before a stellar 25-year career at the Chicago Tribune.

“He always held high standards, and the rest of us followed,” Arnold explained. “I saw Ralph Turner put his job in jeopardy by upholding those standards — that’s how dedicated he was.”

Best friends outside of work, both Arnold and Turner taught advanced reporting and advanced editing and layout classes every semester and acted as advisors to the Parthenon for more than three decades, leaving an indelible mark on the paper for future students.

“Ralph Turner did something revolutionary: Within two years, he had increased the Parthenon from two days a week, which it had been for decades, to four days a week,” Arnold said. “That’s astounding.”

Green said getting involved with student media like the Parthenon, MU Report and WMUL-FM is how Marshall journalism students prepare for the real world; they create connections, network and can easily build up their resumes, equipped with everything they need to enter the workforce.

“The J-School is not the kind of place where you can just take classes and that’s all you do; the J-School is what you make of it,” he said.

Reflecting on being part of the 125-year legacy of the Parthenon, Green said he is simply carrying on the tradition of excellence established by the student editors who came before him.

“It’s definitely a big responsibility on my shoulders, but it’s nice to know you have the torch, and that you will pass it on to the next generation,” he said.

The paper has always been free to students on campus. It’s written for students by students, York said.

“Students know their target audience,” she said. “And it’s always exciting when our student journalists get the scoop before anybody else.”

A student newspaper provides hands-on education that involves working with, and sometimes for, classmates. York said students build lifelong friendships through their time at the paper.

“We’ve had lifelong relationships come out of the Parthenon and all of our student media, which is amazing,” she said. “You’re learning a skill, and what you do here goes out with your name on it. It’s something to be proud of. There’s no other place where you’re getting that kind of experience.”

The real-world experience that the Parthenon provides was born out of necessity, Arnold said.

“It was imperative that we prepared students well for the marketplace, because they needed a job as soon as they graduated,” he explained. “The best way to do that was to use the Parthenon. We never considered it just a student newspaper. The publication had professional standards, and we expected students to meet those standards. More importantly, they wanted to meet those standards.”

Green said he started with the Parthenon the second semester of his freshman year as the features editor, then worked as managing editor before becoming executive editor.

“It’s been a really great experience; I feel like I’ve become a much better journalist,” he said. “I’ve gotten a lot of connections in the J-School. And overall, I’m happy with the product we’ve created and the improvements we’ve been able to make.”

Every edition of the Parthenon has been archived in the university’s library system, available to all on Marshall Digital Scholar, a project that’s been ongoing since York started as the newspaper’s advisor.

“The Parthenon has told the history of Marshall University since 1898, and we expect it will do the same for the next 125 years,” York said.

More than 95 years have passed since he founded the university’s renowned journalism program, but the legend of this iconic professor lives on today.