RIP Jim Scotton, former MU Journalism dean

[MU82]

Just found out that Jim Scotton died last week.

https://www.feerickfuneralhome.com/obituary/james-f-scotton

He was the dean of the Journalism school when I was a student. He had a wonderful understanding of the industry, was a tremendous advocate for Marqauette journalism students, and had a great sense of humor.

For me, Jim was a role model, a mentor and, ultimately a friend. For years after graduating, I'd go see him when I'd return to Milwaukee. Our last email exchange was about a year ago. Just a great guy.

[tower912]

It gets us all.   RIP to another person I admired in my youth.

[Coleman]

Forgive my tangent, but I'm curious, when did the Journalism School cease to be a School, and merely a major within the College of Communications?

I know the Journalism school was highly respected in its time and I always wondered why they university went that route.

[The Sultan]

Forgive my tangent, but I'm curious, when did the Journalism School cease to be a School, and merely a major within the College of Communications?

I know the Journalism school was highly respected in its time and I always wondered why they university went that route.

Late 1980s.  I believe prior to that there was a College of Speech, which became a College of Communications.  Journalism was merged into that soon after.  The reasons were likely to reduce administrative costs, because the university wasn't doing great at the time.  These days a journalism major within a larger communications college is pretty common - if not the norm.  For instance, UW-Madison has a "College of Journalism and Mass Communications."

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Late 1980s.  I believe prior to that there was a College of Speech, which became a College of Communications.  Journalism was merged into that soon after.  The reasons were likely to reduce administrative costs, because the university wasn't doing great at the time.  These days a journalism major within a larger communications college is pretty common - if not the norm.  For instance, UW-Madison has a "College of Journalism, Agricultural Journalism, and Mass Communications."

FIFY

[dgies9156]

Candidly, with the exception of the program in Communicative Disorders, there was enormous overlap between the programs of the College of Speech and those of the College of Journalism. This was especially true in the Broadcast Sequence of the College of Journalism and the Speech College.

Merging them simply made sense.

I met Jim Scotton a few times through my wife, who was an exceptional student in the College of Journalism. When I was graduated from the College, Warren Bovee was the Dean. He was a nice guy and a thoughtful, pleasant man, but really lacked the charisma that Dr. Scotton had.

It was incredibly nice to see that memorials in his honor should be made to the Ed Pepan Scholarship Fund at the College. Ed was a great guy and was the Facebook of the College of Journalism long before there was Facebook. Ed did things the old fashioned way -- he wrote letters. Ms. Dgies and I have been proud supporters of the Pepan Fund.

[Coleman]

Late 1980s.  I believe prior to that there was a College of Speech, which became a College of Communications.  Journalism was merged into that soon after.  The reasons were likely to reduce administrative costs, because the university wasn't doing great at the time.  These days a journalism major within a larger communications college is pretty common - if not the norm.  For instance, UW-Madison has a "College of Journalism and Mass Communications."

Appreciate the info. All of my older MU alum relatives (aunts, uncles, etc.) still talk about what a good J School Marquette has, although they haven't actually had one for 30 years. Was just curious when it happened.

[MU82]

Candidly, with the exception of the program in Communicative Disorders, there was enormous overlap between the programs of the College of Speech and those of the College of Journalism. This was especially true in the Broadcast Sequence of the College of Journalism and the Speech College.

Merging them simply made sense.

I met Jim Scotton a few times through my wife, who was an exceptional student in the College of Journalism. When I was graduated from the College, Warren Bovee was the Dean. He was a nice guy and a thoughtful, pleasant man, but really lacked the charisma that Dr. Scotton had.

It was incredibly nice to see that memorials in his honor should be made to the Ed Pepan Scholarship Fund at the College. Ed was a great guy and was the Facebook of the College of Journalism long before there was Facebook. Ed did things the old fashioned way -- he wrote letters. Ms. Dgies and I have been proud supporters of the Pepan Fund.

What a great description of Ed Pepan, the unsung hero of the J-School for decades.

[dgies9156]

What a great description of Ed Pepan, the unsung hero of the J-School for decades.

He really was. Ed was the only guy in the College who acted, in any way, like a placement director. He knew the kids, he liked being around us and really did make an effort to let us know about our friends and colleagues. Nothing made him feel better than to know "his" students had been successful.

He was an incredibly caring guy and the Pepan fund has made a difference to hundreds of students over the years who studied Journalism at Marquette. With the exception of the Diederichs, Communication doesn't get mega donors the way Engineering and Business do. That's why the Pepan fund is so important and why we support it!