Bob Giles '56 |
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Curator, The Nieman Foundation for Journalism My favorite course at the Journalism School turned out to be Professor Hohenberg’s Washington Reporting and Foreign Correspondence. He taught with flair and an enthusiasm that stimulated in my thinking what a life in journalism could be. Listening to his stories as we sat around the big table in the World Room, I began to consider possibilities I could never before imagine.He explained the nature of campaign coverage and the etiquette of White House reporting and took us, step by step, through the preparation for an overseas assignment. He pounded on the basics, recalling his own years on rewrite at the New York Post. As the dreaded deadlines approached at the end of the day, he would exhort us to “Go with what you’ve got!” Hohenberg gave meaning to the idea of journalism as a public trust, a place in our society where moral purpose and aggressiveness in the pursuit of truth mattered. He saw us moving into a new era of journalism and helped us think of ourselves as professional journalists. For me, he was the teacher who made a difference, the mentor who shared his love of journalism and his passion for its place in our democracy. In the years that followed, as my life in journalism began to mature, I carried his constant reminder that a Columbia education was a privilege and, because of it, more would be expected of me. Read more about Bob... |
Photo/Claire Holt
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