Written by Pat Caraher (’62 Soc. Sci., ’66 Comm.) in 2009. Read a remembrance of Caraher in the Fall 2025 magazine.
Without a doubt the best years of my life so far were spent at Washington State University—11 semesters as a student and 35 bonus years as an employee.
My best professors were the most demanding. The journalism program in the ’60s seemed to have a corner on them—Charles O. Cole, Maynard Hicks and Tom Heuterman. Each taught for three decades or more at WSU. Two others in communications also left their mark on me—Bob Mott and Bill Hall.
My two partners and I eagerly huddled around our yellow envelope. As we tore it open, we saw “Newport” in large font on the top of the page, and I felt a hint of excitement.
I had never heard of Newport but, after a quick Google search, learned that the city of about 2,200 people sits on the Washington-Idaho border just west of the Pend Oreille River. It’s a two-hour and 20-minute drive north from Pullman, and my team was ready to get on the road.
We were among 36 Washington State University students to participate in last fall’s 2024 Rural Reporting Plunge. This » More …
A new program through Washington State University, the Murrow News Fellowship, bridges part of that gap. The first group of 16 reporters are working in newsrooms statewide and producing stories available to any news outlet to use free of charge, whether broadcast, print, digital, or radio.
They launched their careers at Washington State University in the 1960s and ’70s, becoming full professors during a time when reaching that milestone was extremely rare for women. Forty years later, a friend and colleague urged the “Troika,” as they call themselves, to tell their stories in a volume that she then edited.
We Few, We Academic Sisters: How We Persevered and Excelled in Higher Educationwas published by WSU Press in 2023. The same year, WSU’s department of sociology, where the trio worked, turned 100. The authors and their editor, all longtime friends, took part in the centennial celebration, presenting a panel … » More …
