3 minute read
So long, farewell
Journalism prof retires, 30 years
Sydney Grossman/ Roundup
It’s time to say goodbye.
After 30 years of teaching, mentoring and guiding students, professor Rob O’Neil is retiring.
At the age of 6, O’Neil’s first encounter with the journalism world happened on his way home from kindergarten.
Wandering home after realizing his parents were late, O’Neil decided to find his own way.
A block and a half later, a teary-eyed and lost O’Neil was rescued by the local paperboy.
“Journalism teaches you how to think,” said O’Neil. “It’s a job where you never know what you are going to do when you get up in the morning. It’s exciting.”
Joining the Pierce family as a substitute in the spring of 1987 and then returning as a full-time professor in 1989, O’Neil’s job and identity have become one.
O’Neil has been a professor of journalism and cinema, the past journalism department chair for about seven years and an advisor to the Roundup.
Pierce has always been his home away from home.
“I have no idea what’s next. It’s frightening,” O’Neil said. “I have never done anything but work and I haven’t had any practice playing. Your job sort of becomes your identity. It becomes who you are.”
O’Neil has worked at almost all of the nine colleges within the district, yet loves his home at Pierce the most.
“I like the campus and I like the farm smell,” said O’Neil, who went to school in Nebraska. “I like the open feeling about it. The people are nicer and the campus is nicer.”
The joy of working at Pierce came in large part to the variety of students he met.
Every year brought new people, new exposures and new experiences.
To his thousands of students, his message is the same for all:
“I would like my students to remember that journalism is a calling. It’s a mission,” O’Neil said. “It’s so important to have trained ethical people who are looking out for everyone.”
As a recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the California Journalism Education Coalition, this humble professor has left his mark on campus and with his students.
O’Neil’s students have launched into the journalism work field from working for the L.A. Times to becoming teachers themselves.
Looking forward to spending more time with his four grandchildren, O’Neil does not know what else the next chapter of his life will entail.
“I’m excited and frightened— probably equal amounts of both,” said O’Neil.
