Vernon A. Stone: newsman and educator.

Our paths crossed a number of times at various professional or educational gatherings. We shared some similar experiences in newsrooms and classrooms, and often we found ourselves of common mind: a couple of news guys who started their careers in the '40s and '50s when television news was just getting cranked up and who commiserated, in the '90s, about how it was deteriorating. Our careers converged once more when Vernon Stone joined the University of Missouri School of Journalism faculty not long after I became chair of the Broadcast News Department (his hiring already was in the works). And we both retired at the same time, in 1992.

Vernon continued another 2 years as research director for the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), then retired from that 22-year assignment as well. His visits to the Journalism School became less frequent after that; we ran into each other on the jogging trail more frequently than at other venues.

I was out of the city when Vernon A. Stone, Professor Emeritus of Journalism, died on June 15, 2005. One newspaper obituary listed cause of death as "complications from surgery. He was 75" ("Vernon A. Stone," 2005).

A few weeks later, his son, Adam, returned to Columbia to prepare his father's house for sale and to decide what to do with all the material accumulations of a lifetime. Adam invited me to the house to go through Vern's books, to decide which ones would be appropriate for the Journalism Library. I quickly concluded it was a daunting task, far beyond my abilities, and deferred to our Journalism librarian.

The extensive collection was testimony to the academic and professional "mix" that Vernon Stone typified: writings about research dealing with the increases of women and minorities in broadcast media; about salary trends; about the variety of career possibilities, educational levels of news personnel, levels of job satisfaction. There were biographies and autobiographies of prominent news personalities, books about broadcast news writing style and media ethics, and copies of theses and dissertations by some of the many M.A. and Ph.D. candidates on whose committees he served or chaired. In addition, a few copies surfaced of some of the more than 150 research articles and papers Vernon produced that were published in a number of scholarly journals and trade periodicals (primarily the RTNDA Communicator) and presented at academic conventions (mainly the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication [AEJMC]). In 1973, Journalism Quarterly designated him one of the nation's 10 most productive authors of articles in peer-reviewed communication research journals ("Vernon A. Stone," n.d.).

Edward Lambeth, professor emeritus of Journalism, former associate dean of Graduate Studies, University of Missouri School of Journalism, recounts:

Vernon Stone was a pioneer in applying quantitative methods to the

study of media audiences. In a deeper sense, his scholarly example

in mentoring young researchers helped bring a whole new generation

of social scientists to the fore in the analysis of the effects of

radio and television news and programming, especially for the

Radio-Television News Directors Association. (E. Lambeth, personal

communication, March 2, 2006).

The obituary included this comment from another faculty colleague at Missouri, George Kennedy: "[He had] a kind of a gruff, no-nonsense demeanor that failed to hide the reality that he cared deeply about his students and the craft" ("Vernon A. Stone," 2005).

Vernon's career resembled that of many of us who began in a newsroom and moved (some more readily and comfortably than others, perhaps) into the academic life. He earned his undergraduate degree in English from Western Kentucky University (his home state); the M.A. in Journalism from the University of Iowa, and the Ph.D. in Mass Communications from the University of Wisconsin. It was while he was pursuing his M.A. at Iowa, in 1952, that he met Jack Shelley, then the news manager of WHO Des Moines, at an Iowa Broadcast News Association meeting. (Another coincidence: I had graduated from Iowa 2 years earlier and had become the rookie member of Shelley's WHO news staff.)

Shelley recalls talking with Vernon about his M.A. research project, a study of the writing styles and speed of delivery of the then three major wire services: AP, UP, and INS. "He had collected a lot of data," Shelley remembered (personal communication, January 16, 2006). Shelley left WHO to join the faculty at Iowa State University in 1965 and retired from that position about 20 years later. He had been one of the founders, in 1946, and a past president of the National Association of Radio News Directors, which later became RTNDA. It is likely that Shelley's association with the already-growing broadcast news organization, together with the research work Stone brought to Shelley's attention, contributed to Stone's long (1972-94) affiliation with RTNDA, first as chair of the RTNDA Research Committee, then as its research director.

He already had earned his professional stripes: 1951 to 1953 in news and announcing at WKAY, Glasgow, Kentucky, and KXIC, Iowa City, Iowa, then 9 years at WHAS and WHAS-TV, Louisville. Then it was back to the campus, the University of Wisconsin, to take that plunge into the academic life full time. Without leaving the campus, he earned the Ph.D., joined the faculty full time, advanced from assistant to full professor, and became head of the broadcast news sequence ("Vernon A. Stone," n.d.).

It was during his student days at Wisconsin when he met another graduate student, Jim Hoyt, who also had come from a broadcast news room. Hoyt recalls his and Vernon's relationship that began in the '60s:

I was a Master's student most recently from WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee

and he was a Ph.D. student. He and I had a lot in common and when he

began to teach a broadcast news course at Wisconsin he immediately

asked me to become his teaching assistant. Vernon completed his

Ph.D. at Wisconsin and, in a highly unusual move, the school

immediately invited him to join the faculty full time as an

assistant professor. I continued as his teaching assistant and,

later, as his research assistant. When I completed my own Ph.D.

in 1970, Vernon strongly advised me to accept an offer as an

assistant professor at Indiana University in Bloomington. Within 3

years the broadcast journalism program at Wisconsin had grown to

the point that it required a second full-time faculty member, and

Vernon offered me the opportunity to return to my alma mater, this

time as an assistant professor. We remained as faculty colleagues at

Wisconsin until he moved to the University of Georgia a few years

later.

In the classroom Vernon was as demanding as he was rigorous. His

standards were exacting and his deadlines unyielding. He tried as

best he could to recreate the real world of a broadcast

newsroom--with unrelenting deadlines--in all of our broadcast news

labs. This was all pretty new territory in late 1960s. Students

always considered it a badge of honor to complete his classes

successfully. Vernon didn't yell or scream, but everyone knew his

expectations for them.

Throughout my career in broadcast journalism education, (we)

remained in close contact.... He was an enthusiastic and dedicated

researcher who always wanted his research to have meaning for the

real world of professional broadcast journalism ... [to] help solve

real problems, illuminate real issues, and address real needs of the

profession. His mind was not overly theoretical. He applied strict

and rigorous social science methodology to the issues of the day and

published them in clear prose that working professionals could

understand.... As RTNDA research director he was continually

searching for new issues to address. Vernon Stone dedicated his

professional life to providing research results that would advance

the profession. If his research didn't pass that test, he didn't

want to publish it. The world of professional broadcast journalism

is far better off because of his research efforts. (J. Hoyt,

personal communication, February 28, 2006)

Stone left Wisconsin to become a research professor at the University of Georgia, Athens, 1974 to 1978, then served as professor and director, School of Journalism, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, 1978 to 1986. He moved to the University of Missouri as research professor in 1987 and retired as professor emeritus in 1992 (In Memoriam, Vernon Stone, 2005).

Along the way, Stone collected a number of honors: the John F. Hogan Distinguished Service Award from RTNDA in 1988 for "research that has traced the most accurate image of ... electronic journalism," the Presidential Award from the AEJMC in 1993 for "outstanding service to the field," and the 1998 AEJMC Distinguished Broadcast Journalism Educator Award for "excellence in electronic journalism and mass media education" ("Vernon A. Stone," n.d.).