 WARREN MACK |
He faced many confrontations during his career as he defended that principle and supported his students no matter how unpopular their views. Warren believed students best learned journalistic skills and responsibility by doing, and did not read students' copy before it was published. He taught journalism the way "it was done in the real world," with student editors making all the decisions. He was ready to accept his students' mistakes because of inexperience, and was always ready to offer guidance if asked.
Warren was drawn into teaching when he worked for a small paper in Oregon. He looked at the writing in newspapers published in his region and was appalled at the quality of work. Thinking that "there must be a better way to train students," he finished a master's degree at the University of Oregon and planned to do what he could to improve journalism education.
He taught at the University of Wyoming for several years, but deciding that a community college in California was more in line what he wanted to do, he joined Foothill College in Los Altos Hills. When the Foothill District opened DeAnza College in 1967, Warren established the journalism program and remained at the school until his retirement.
In each of the schools where he taught, administrators, faculty and former students still think of him as the outstanding educator who devoted his life to journalism education. Warren's life was journalism. He looked on his college assignments and career as a mission, a calling that demanded full involvement. Some noting his zest described him as a self-proclaimed "messiah," bringing the truth of journalism education to the masses. Warren often laughed at that description, but he was earnest and even after his retirement continued his quest in various ways.
Warren was respected and loved by his students, but his influence was also felt in the various national and state organizations of which he was a member. He was not one to sit back, as anyone who served with him will recall. He became president of every organization he joined, including the Journalism Association of Community Colleges, was College Media Advisers educator of the year, California Newspaper Publishers Association educator of the year, served on many committees, and was always ready to help when called.
He kept a thick file filled with correspondence he gathered during the years when students, advisers or anyone else sought him out for advice on setting up journalism programs or solving First Amendment conflicts with college administrations or student councils. He often said he wanted to be remembered as someone who helped journalism instructors as they began their careers. A phone call would come in and Warren, with his ever present pipe clinched between his teeth, would type out three or four pages, single-spaced, and share his knowledge and experience with seeking the "Mack touch."
His students loved him and his big smile. They appreciated his guidance, his friendliness and kept in touch. Many are now professional journalists who remain loyal to the man who gave them so much. To his students, he was always "Mr. Mack." Behind his back, they called him "WAM," the initials he left on every piece of copy he graded for them. To his colleagues, he was "Mack." His friends, and the people who knew him best, called him Warren.
Until the end of his life, Warren maintained an active interest in journalism education, never losing faith in the importance of journalism and in the students following the path he set for them in his classes.
They remember him with that clenched pipe and big smile. They remember what he taught them and how he taught them.
What we have to do, he said, is "train 'em and trust 'em."
