School of Journalism

The University of Montana

October 1998

Stewart Thurlkill works on a design project in the refurbished Mac lab.

New computers, software enhance J-School Mac lab

Journalism students are making good use of the new hardware and software recently installed in the computer lab. Ten new machines have been installed--wicked-fast 266 MHz G3 Power Macs. By the end of the semester, Assistant Professor Keith Graham said, all computers in the lab should have 64 megs of RAM and 17-inch monitors. All machines are equipped with QuarkXpress, Photoshop and Microsoft Office 98. By the end of spring semester, Graham hopes to upgrade Quark and Photoshop software. All machines are equipped with three of Microsoft's most popular applications-- Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Two machines are also equipped with Microsoft Bookshelf, a reference source and FrontPage, for web publishing. The Microsoft software comes courtesy of Mike Oldham, a UM alumnus and Microsoft employee. Half of the site license was donated by Oldham while the other half was a matching contribution by Microsoft. Thanks, Mike! The journalism computer lab was remodeled this summer to better accomodate instruction, making it far less cramped than it was, yet still with 20 work stations.

Two J-School grads win Distinguished Alumni Award

Two more journalism grads have been recognized as Distinguished Alumni by UM for their distinguished careers. Jack Cloherty and Donna A. Hoover Metcalf were honored at a campus reception on Fri., Oct. 2, along with four other university distinguished alumni. Nominations for the award are taken from the community as well as from UM alumni. The School of Journalism, one of the smallest units on campus, leads the university in the number of recipients receiving this prestigious award.

Donna A. Hoover Metcalf

Donna Metcalf's commitment to public life began soon after her graduation from the school of journalism in 1935. She became Sen. Lee Metcalf's wife and closest advisor. After Metcalf's death in 1979, she dedicated her work to environmental conservation. Donna chaired the Forever Wild Endowment and served on the board of the Northern Rockies Action Group. For 10 years she was a member of the Montana Judicial Nomination Commission. She served as trustee to the Ruth Mott Foundation from 1984 to1995. The foundation assists non-profit organizations in the health, environment, national and international security, and the arts.

Jack Cloherty

Jack Cloherty, a 1972 UM journalism graduate, is the senior Washington producer of NBC's Dateline. His career in newspaper and television journalism spans more than 25 years. Cloherty got his start as a print reporter and wrote a syndicated column for the now defunct Washington Star. Then he became a television reporter for WRC, an NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C. Cloherty was instrumental in bringing down former Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry Jr. Cloherty made a painstaking investigation of drug charges against the former mayor. Cloherty has been honored frequently by his peers. For his investigative reporting in politics, commerce and social services, he has received two George Polk awards and the Gold Medallion from Investigative Reporters and Editors. This year, he received the National Press Club award for consumer reporting.

Three NBC newsmen honored after Homecoming game

Three NBC journalists, two of them J-School alumni and the third a former visiting professor at the school, were honored at a reception after the Oct. 3 Homecoming football game. Don Oliver and Jack Cloherty, both UM graduates, were recognized for their extensive television and newspaper careers. Tom Cheatham, a Northwestern University graduate, was also recognized for his NBC reporting work. Cheatham taught broadcast news courses at UM during the 1993-94 school year. Oliver, who graduated from UM's school of journalism in 1958, is teaching three courses this semester at the J-school in place of the late Dean Joe Durso. He teaches two broadcast courses in the Radio-Television department. One emphasizes news writing and reporting. The other teaches broadcast news, a course that teaches UM students how to create a half-hour magazine-style show that airs on PBS in November. Oliver also teaches a senior seminar course for print journalism students, dealing with ethical issues in the print media. Oliver earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1962. He worked in various radio and television stations in Montana, Idaho and Washington before working as a newscaster and political reporter for three years at KCRA in Sacramento. In 1965, Oliver became a news director at KREM in Spokane. He then spent 25 years working as an NBC correspondent stationed in the Midwest, on the Pacific coast and in the Far East. Since 1992, Oliver has worked as a media consultant for a Los Angeles firm and as a contributing correspondent for NBC News. Besided teaching at UM, Oliver presently operates Oliver Communications in Los Angeles and works as a media consultant. Cheatham graduated in 1966 from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. He became a war correspondent in Vietnam, reporting for United Press International from 1966-68. For the last 30 years, Cheatham has worked as a reporter around the world for both NBC News and UPI. Based in cities such as New York, London and Tel Aviv, Israel, he covered the 1973 Middle East crisis, conflicts in Africa and more recently in Northern Ireland and Rwanda. During the 1993-94 school year, Cheatham taught courses in radio and television at UM, including news writing and reporting for broadcast news. Last year he covered the Oklahoma City bombing trial. He continues to work part time as a free-lance reporter for NBC News and lives in Durango, Colo. (For a thumbnail sketch of Jack Cloherty, see preceding story on Distinguished Alumni)

Oliver

Cheatham

Alumnae donate career papers, notes to J-School

Two alumnae from the Class of '43, both with outstanding journalism careers, recently donated their papers to the School of Journalism. The works of Aline Mosby and Dorothy Powers will be housed in the Mansfield Library and be available for those who want to study their illustrious careers.

Dorothy Powers graduated with honors from UM in 1943, and joined the staff at the Spokane Spokesman-Review. Except for a 2-year stint with Tennessee newspapers, Powers worked for the Spokesman-Review and its sister paper, the Spokane Chronicle, for 44 years. She worked as a reporter, columnist, editorial page editor and as an associate editor. Powers became the first women associate editor in Spokane. Powers had an eye for the offbeat story. In pursuit of stories, she hung out with derelicts on skid row, observed brain surgery, and became the first American women to fly in a Strategic Air Command jet. While vacationing in the Mediterranean in 1985, she aborted her vacation to send her paper exclusives of the Achille Lauro hijacking. Upon Powers' retirement in 1988, the Cowles Publishing Company endowed the Dorothy Rochon Powers Scholarship at UM. The award states that recipients "must reflect the high qualities of integrity, intelligence, enthusiasm, energy and enterprise demonstrated by Dorothy Rochon Powers throughout her career."

Aline Mosby, a Missoula native, died on Aug. 7. Mosby's work included everything from Hollwood gossip to world affairs. Shortly after earning her journalism degree at UM in 1943, she joined the staff at United Press International. For more than 50 years, her career included stints in Moscow and Beijing. Mosby was the first woman assigned by a major news service to cover the Kremlin and she opened the first UPI bureau in Beijing in 1972. She interviewed Lee Harvey Oswald after he renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1959, four years before his arrest for President Kennedy's assassination on Nov. 22, 1963. Mosby retired from UPI in 1984 and continued to free-lance for various newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times. Mosby received an honorary degree from UM in 1985 and returned to Missoula in 1991 from her home in Paris. Her life papers include original notes from the Oswald interview, and notes from a conversation with Jacqueline Kennedy.

DATES AND DEADLINES

Oct. 12 Last day to drop/add (No money back). Oct. 12 Last day to change class section. Oct. 12 Last day to change from Pass/No Pass to traditional letter grade.