Mike Blackman, Gone But Not Forgotten September 26, 2021
Posted by Mia Moody-Ramirez in : Uncategorized , trackback
Photo courtesy of Mia Moody-Ramirez
Baylor Department of Journalism, Public Relations and New Media faculty, students and staff are sad to lose former colleague–Mike Blackman. He died Sept. 23 at age 77. He had been in poor health for several years.
Blackman, who served as the Baylor JPR&NM’s Fred Hartman Distinguished Professor for several years, was a kind colleague who was known for the delicious Christmas cookies and eclectic collection of paintings that he shared with the department each year.
Blackman was a Baylor University journalism alumnus and veteran reporter and editor. He brought several speakers to the department and organized an outstanding alumni banquet.
He was talented and warm-hearted. Blackman became editor of the Star-Telegram in 1986 and led what many described as the transition of the newspaper into a top-rated news organization.
Blackman was a 1967 graduate of Baylor University and The Ohio State University in 1974.
He was vice president and executive editor for the Star-Telegram for eight years, editor for two years, and editorial director for three years. After retirement in 1999 he also worked as senior writer/editor at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He held the Fred Hartman Distinguished Chair in the Baylor journalism department at the end of his career and also taught journalism at Sam Houston State University.
He was a military policeman in the U.S. Army Reserve and a flight-line mechanic in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and supervised staffs that won numerous local, state and national newspaper awards.
“He was the best friend and coworker I ever had,” Henry Holcomb, a former senior editor at the Star-Telegram, said in a Facebook post.
“Mike’s mother-in-law baked very good cookies and Mike was nice to share them with us each Christmas,” said retired office manager Margaret Kramer. “He will be missed.”
Senior lecturer Cassy Burleson added that she will miss his sense of humor.
“The world is better for his life in journalism and the many friends he made along the way,” she said.
Survivors include his wife, Dorothy Pomeroy Blackman; two sons, Jay Blackman and wife Emily and children Audrey, Juliette and Madeleine in Houston, and Sawyer Blackman, a student at Texas Tech in Lubbock; and two daughters, Molly Blackman of Austin and Emily Blackman of Los Alamos, California.
Condolences to his family, friends and classmates.
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