Portal:1940s
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Missouri Journalism in the 1940s
The School survived World War II with a drop in enrollment, no graduate programs and an accelerated curriculum that sent students out into a world that needed them. Near war’s end, the photojournalism program flourished, and advances in technology and the curriculum produced students with new skills in radio, public relations and facsimile news transmission.
See the Missouri School of Journalism Centennial Timeline, http://journalism.missouri.edu/2008/1940-1949/index.html, for a review of the 1940s.
Memories of the Missouri Press Association
Submitted by Betty Anne Peterson Neill
During the ’40s, WWII, days, Missouri Press Association had its office on the second floor of Walter Williams Hall. The late professor H.R. Long was manager of the association. It was the practice at that time to select a student who would serve for a year in the part time job of associate editor of the “Missouri Press News,” the association’s monthly. Actually, we were the editors with minor supervision by H.R. Long.
As the war progressed there were few men on campus, and I had the experience of being the first female offered that job. I followed the late Ben Phlegar, BJ ’43, who was preceded by Don Hanson. I don’t have names earlier than that. After my year, ’43-’44, I was followed by one who I believe was named Sue, and later, a Christine Long held that job.
For me it was a great opportunity. I married soon after graduation and followed my military husband to my first newspaper job that fall in San Luis Obispo, Calif. Had I needed to come back to Missouri for a job, I had a myriad of good contacts in the Press Association.
Betty Anne Peterson Neill served as the first female editor of the Missouri Press News.
Career Highlights: Robert Buyer
Submitted by Robert E. Buyer, MA ’49
Highlights of 47 years (1952-1999) of reporting for The Buffalo Evening News: I credit lessons learned in the General Semantics Course taught by the then Dean, Earl English, with sharpening my writing techniques.
On September 9, 1971, I was the lone reporter listening to the grievances of some of the 1,500 inmates who had seized control of the maximum security Attica Correctional Facility. I wrote stories for the next three days that culminated on September 13 when state police assaulted the inmates, killing 39, some convicts and some state employees. The 43 total killed, including four before the police arrived, constituted the worst modern New York State prison incident.
Throughout my four decades of reporting, I covered agricultural stories in eight Western New York counties and wrote 1,200 weekly farm columns. I wrote about dairy, apple, grape, vegetable, honey, poultry and Christmas tree enterprises. In the mid-80s, the New York Farm Bureau gave me its “Distinguished Service to Agriculture” award.
From the ’70s though the ’90s, I wrote about the on-going problems of nuclear waste disposal. They centered around the Western New York Nuclear Demonstration project, located near West Valley, N.Y.
Foreign assignments included two tours of American Military bases in Europe and North Africa. Additionally, in 1985, I was one of 40 World War II soldiers invited by the Dutch Government to help it celebrate the 40th anniversary of its liberation from the Nazi invaders.
Other awards included a safety writing honor from the American Trucking Association, a trip to Switzerland awarded by Ceiba-Geigy Chemical Corporation and numerous regional honors.
Finally, I was engaged in a two-year series of feature articles entitled “Bob Buyer on the Backroads.”
