Talbots thanked for enriching UM, community

photo by David Erickson

John and Sue Talbot thank a highly receptive audience after being recognized by the University of Montana during Charter Day, celebrating the school's 112th birthday.

By Kelley McLandress
J-School Web reporter

John and Sue Talbot, two prominent friends of the University of Montana and of the Journalism School, were honored last month for their efforts to create lasting links between fellow Montanans and the University community.

On Feb. 17, the University’s 112th birthday — called Charter Day—  the Talbots received the Neil S. Bucklew Presidential Service Award.  It was one of seven awards presented at the annual Alumni Association’s Charter Day awards ceremony in the University Ballroom. About 200 people attended.

“Both John and Sue are well known for their generous philanthropic contributions, unmatched in breadth, from the arts to the environment,” said Laura Brehm, president and CEO of the UM Foundation, who introduced the Talbots.

She also recognized the Talbots’ role in raising funds for the new $12 million journalism building, which will house print, broadcast and photojournalism students together. It will be named after Sue Talbot’s father, Don Anderson, a former executive of Lee Newspapers who negotiated his company’s  purchase of five Anaconda Co. newspapers in Montana in 1959, releasing them from the censorship of the Anaconda Copper Co.

The University Foundation established the Neil S. Bucklew Presidential Award in 1987, named after the man who was UM president from 1981 to 1986. The award recognizes men and women who “communicate the University’s strengths to their fellow Montanans and relay back to the university community the hopes and concerns of Montana residents.” 

The Talbots each have backgrounds focused on community that preceded their Bucklew Award achievements.

“I was very fortunate to be raised and to live in a university town for the first 20 years of my life,” Sue Talbot said of growing up in Madison, Wi's. and then of her college education at Radcliff College in Boston. The Talbots have lived in Missoula for the last 35 years.

“During the first batch (of years), I didn’t understand how rich the university’s gifts are,” she said. “But now, in the last batch, I do.”

Her husband agrees. “Living in a university town has enriched our lives,” he said before the ceremony. The couple noted that they enjoy music, the presidential lecture series, arts and athletics because they live in a university town like Missoula.

John Talbot is originally from western Massachusetts, “what they call ‘out West’ in Boston,” he said. He and Sue met in college, and he graduated from Harvard with a degree in fine arts. His career took him from Washington, D.C. to Europe while he worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. He later worked with the now-defunct airline, TWA. He became publisher of the Missoulian in 1970, a position he held until 1980.

During his time as publisher, Talbot said he wanted to provide the newspaper with some management training. “The Business School stepped up,” he said. “At a fair price, I might add.”

Later, he taught media management courses at the Journalism School for several years as his “last chapter,” he said.

“In our 35 years in Missoula,” said John Talbot, “we’ve tried to bring ties between community members and the university.”

Sue Talbot is involved with a long list of community organizations; two are the Missoula Youth Homes and United Way.  “All of these make Missoula a better town,” she said.

The Talbots have also helped to make Missoula a better town, said Brehm: “We are better people for knowing John and Sue Talbot.”

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