Y E A R S
1920s
The Hubbard School couldn’t have asked for a more dedicated and innovative first director. Ralph D. Casey served from 1930 to 1958 and built a program that would last for generations. Casey got his start at the University of Washington with a B.A. in journalism and political science. He taught at Washington and the University of Montana as a journalism professor before coming to the U of M. Casey was determined to design courses and create a program that worked with the College of Liberal Arts. He developed and produced a relationship with the College that was essential to integrating the journalism curriculum with diverse classes, something Casey thought vital to being a good journalist. “The heart of journalism instruction occurs in the Midwest because of the land grant college tradition,” he said in an interview in 1967. “It wasn’t the New England liberal arts concept. It was the concept of a university that had broad support from agriculture clear to zoology with all of the techniques and disciplines between.” To him, the press has to relate to social institutions in society, and journalists have to know things like press law, freedom of the press and international and foreign press. He argued that they should be trained as diversely and thoroughly as lawyers and doctors. He also worked with Professor Mitch Charnley to create TV and radio programs. Outside the School, Casey continued his commitment to the field. He edited the Journalism Quarterly for 10 years and even took a trip across Europe with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization after World War II to help reestablish lines of communication and build up the press, radio and film industries. After he retired, he lectured across the country and served on the faculty boards for the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Stanford. Casey and his wife moved back to Seattle in 1961 and lived out the rest of their lives there. Nevertheless, Casey remained connected to the School and visited it and his many friends until his passing in 1977.
MURPHY HALL BUILT
The Regents authorized a new home for journalism in 1938. The four-story building, with its auditorium, library, classrooms and a basement home for three student publications, became a model for other journalism schools. Ground was broken in 1938, faculty and students moved from Pillsbury Hall to the new building in February of 1940, and the building was dedicated in May of that year. The unit was designated a School in 1941.
1930s
RALPH D. CASEY
ED EMERY
Edwin “Ed” Emery touched many people, places and publications during his 39 years as a journalism professor at the Hubbard School. Emery started at the School in 1945 after earning his Ph.D. in history at the University of California at Berkeley. Before moving to Minnesota, Emery worked at multiple news outlets, like the San Francisco Examiner, where he covered World War II. Emery wrote 11 books during his lifetime, including 1954’s “The Press and America,” a leading text in mass media history, translated into four languages. Additionally, he co-wrote “Introduction to Mass Communication,” which co-author William Agee said was different from everything else in the field. Emery worked as an editor of Journalism Quarterly from 1952-1973 and the Director of Graduate Studies at the School from 1973-1979. Emery was called a “champion of the student” and created a place for aspiring historians to come and grow. It was rumored Emery would even pay for students’ tuition when they needed it. Along with his teaching in Minnesota, Emery was a visiting professor and lecturer in over 20 countries, and in 1980, the Society of Professional Journalists awarded him with their Distinguished Teaching in Journalism Award. He won numerous other awards during his teaching years, including the Special Chair of Taiwan's National Science Council and a Social Science Research Council grant. Emery retired in 1984. He died from leukemia at age 79.
1940s
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TIMELINE 1920s
1917:
Journalism education at the University of Minnesota formally begins when plans are drawn for a major curriculum with courses offered in continuity.
1918: William
J. Murphy, publisher of the Minneapolis Tribune, bequeaths a portion of his estate to
1922: The
the University for “the establishing and maintaining of a course of instruction in journalism.” The value of the donation is about $735,000 today.
department of journalism is established within CSLA and Reuel R. Barlow, a journalist for The New York Evening Post and other publications, is named administrator with the title, “instructor in charge.”
1924: The
department of journalism increases from 30 students in 1920 to 110 in 1924. The School offers courses on six
different topics of professional journalism and doubles the number of typewriters in the school.
1929: The
department is located in Folwell Hall and the old Music Building until moving into Pillsbury Hall in 1929.
1930s
faculty to be a research specialist in international communication and the foreign press. He also teaches news editing and public affairs reporting.
1930: A
former Seattle and New York newspaperman who obtained his Ph.D. from Wisconsin, Ralph D. Casey, becomes the head of the journalism department.
1930: First M.A. in journalism is awarded
1934: Mitchell
V. Charnley, former newspaperman, magazine editor and Iowa State College professor, is hired to teach reporting and to develop
the magazine journalism courses.
1938: The
Board of Regents authorize the construction of Murphy Hall.
1940: Murphy Hall opens and the journalism department moves from Pillsbury Hall.
1935: Ralph
O. Nafziger, a former newspaperman and Wisconsin Ph.D. candidate, joins the
HUBBARD SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION
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