University of Montana honors
two J-School grads
as Distinguished Alumni
during Homecoming 2001

Margaret E. MacDonald is known as the “church lady” in Billings.

The late Jeff Cole was a reporter with a cowboy attitude.

Both are graduates from the University of Montana’s School of Journalism whose careers led them along divergent paths, but they do have one thing in common: they were honored by UM as Distinguished Alumni this fall.

MacDonald and Cole received the awards at the university’s 2001 homecoming celebration, bringing the total number of J-School graduates who’ve received Distinguished Alumni awards to 42. The journalism school leads the campus in producing Distinguished Alumni award winners.

MacDonald, executive director of the Montana Association of Churches, was raised in Glendive, Mont. She attended UM during the Vietnam War, a time of national and campus unrest, she said. Students staged numerous anti-war demonstrations and strikes, many of which she took part in.

“I was an activist, involved with the anti-war movement,” she said. “I was also very engaged with the community and did volunteer work in Missoula.”

MacDonald graduated in 1974 and began her career working as a community organizer for the Northern Plains Resource Council. In 1990 she became the Executive Director of the Montana Association of Churches.

MacDonald is renowned for her work combating hate crimes in Billings. After several acts of anti-Semitic violence in 1993, she organized a campaign in which thousands of homeowners displayed paper menorahs in their windows to promote solidarity.

MacDonald’s campaign, which adopted the slogan “Not in our Town,” earned her national recognition and numerous awards.

“Margie is unique in her ability to discern quickly moral principles and then to follow through by speaking for justice,” wrote a Billings resident in a letter supporting MacDonald’s nomination for the Distinguished Alumni Award.

Cole, who graduated from UM 20 years ago, died in a plane crash in January while on assignment for the Wall Street Journal.

He began his journalism career at the Missoulian, where he worked as business editor. He worked for newspapers in Minnesota and Washington until he was hired by the Wall Street Journal in 1992.

Cole worked as the aerospace editor for the Journal, where he was respected as a tenacious and accurate reporter, said his wife, Maria Little. Cole’s editors once told Little that her husband was responsible for as many as 20 percent of the Journal’s scoops.

“My husband was all about the truth,” she said. “He sought it out in any corner. He was comfortable sitting in a smoky bar as he was in a CEO’s office to find out the truth.”

Cole was known for his personality as well as his talent in the newsroom. He would often talk about reporting the way a cowboy would talk about roping a big steer, according to Journal editor Steve Lipin. Cole would say “Together we’re gonna lasso this baby down.”

Little accepted the Distinguished Alumnus award on behalf of her husband. Also on his behalf, she recently accepted the Memorial Award from the New York Financial Writers Association and the Boeing Decade of Excellence Award.

“The award from the University of Montana would be the one he would be most proud of,” she said. “He loved this institution and this faculty.”

Cole and MacDonald were two of six UM graduates to receive the Distinguished Alumni award this year.

“I have no doubt that we have graduates now in the working world and students preparing to enter it who will also distinguish themselves,” said Jerry Brown, Dean of the School of Journalism. “Fortunately, in Margaret MacDonald and Jeff Cole they have two examples of outstanding, exemplary service to this school’s tradition, to our profession and to the general public.”

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