As promised in my last entry for members of my J-School class, I am presenting a summary of my resume since 1960. But I need to start with a few grafs of preamble.
Those who were graduated from journalism schools in the 1960’s were probably the last generation to sense that they were the “Keepers of the Flame.” Were we in today’s cohort we’d probably see ourselves as entrepreneurial digital techies.
Tom Brockaw called those who preceded us “The Greatest Generation.” Yes, they were the last Americans to fight in a just war. After which they invented the consumer society and the suburbs. Their unintended legacy for us was urban poverty and slums, abandoned factories, school segregation, and an openly defiant racism.
The faculty at the J-School knew what we would be up against. We were deputized by Prof. John Hohenberg and assigned to stand firm against the on-coming tide. That was the day he threw our ungraded editorials at us and stomped out of class vowing to never return. We had been baited by the assignment to write an editorial defending school segregation. His return to class, our apologies in hand, left us knowing what was expected of us.
It has been a tumultuous 60 years since then. We have lived through an epoch that has seen
the assassinations of our greatest liberal leaders,
lies that lured us into endless wars and enriched the military-industrial complex,
widening cultural, political and economic divides,
the failure of government, democratic practice, and justice,
and the debasement of the media.
I know that we all worked to uphold the values of our profession. And while what’s left of the good gray press struggles to preserve its grayness, the emphasis is shifting to a new breed exemplified by the likes of Snowden, Assange, Greenwald, Taibbi and Chung. So now as promised let’s visit my evolving career at age 86.
When I left Columbia, I thought I had the lowest paying job at $125 per week as managing editor of a start up weekly, Manhattan East, until Carl Leubsdorf reminded me that he started at $85 per week. When the military draft beckoned, I instituted my own 4F program: “2Fat 2Fight,” a steady diet of burgers, pizza and malteds. When that failed, a late intervention by Sen. Jacob Javits got me a coveted slot in a reserve unit, the 77th Infantry Division medical corps.
Since then the list has been long and varied:
U.S. Committee for Refugees, Information Director. Wrote statement for Dalai Lama upon his first visit to US and UN.
Met LifeInsurance, Editor. Company Magazine
Beooklyn College, Instructor. Journalism. (9 years)
Courier Publications, editor in chief, Three community newspapers.
Founding editor (with Gerry Rothberg) of 4 magazines: CLYDE, True Weird, Hullabaloo and Circus.
School of Visual Arts (NYC). Consultant and adjunct professor
Brooklyn College CUNY, Pubic Relations Director.
Columbia J-School, adjunct professor.
New York Institute of Technology, Director of PR and Development
Bronx Community College CUNY, Director of PR and Development
University Heights Development Corp., Senior housing. President.
Jersey Business Review, Publisher
Ramsey/Mahwah Reporter, Editor in Chief.
McGraw Hill CCMI, Technical editor.
Loyola University (Md.), Journalism Professor (now Emeritus)
Gonzaga University, Adjunct on-line Professor.
Baltimore Sun, Op-Ed contributor.
Catholic Review, Travel Editor and Board Member.
Institute for Education in International Media (ieiMedia), President
Punctuating these experiences were personal milestones that involved three marriages, two children, rehab stints at Duke University, 7 houses and 2 condos in 5 states and 2 countries. And I feel there will be more to come, given my addiction to change. I fear that Hohenberg may have left me with some unfinished business.
OUTSIDE MOSCOW UNIVERSITY JOURNALISM SCHOOL: