In Memoriam December 11, 2020
Posted by Mia Moody-Ramirez in : Uncategorized , trackback
By David McHam
My father-in-law Dick Wall was a member of the Baylor class of 1930, a journalism major and editor of the Round-Up. For years he had lunch every week with friends, especially some he had gone to Baylor with.
One day I was there when he came home from the lunch. This was more than 50 years after he had graduated. And he said, “The hardest thing about growing old is that you begin to lose all your friends.”
The older I get the more I identify with Mr. Wall.
***
Sherri Taylor spent 30 years on the faculty of the Newhouse School of Journalism at Syracuse University. She was an expert in photography and design. That started, she often said, when she took typography with Ed Kelton at Baylor.
She died on October 19 in Syracuse.
Sherri was from Irving and after graduating from Baylor in 1972 she taught for several years at high school in the Dallas area. She went to Syracuse for graduate school and remained there for the rest of her life.
At Syracuse she taught graphic design and was director of the Empire State School Press Association. Sherri received many awards including being selected as the Texas Journalism Teacher of the Year.
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Nancye Phillips, wife of Mike Phillips, died on November 30 in Fort Mitchell, Ky. Nancye graduated from Hanover College and worked as a reporter during her career. She and Mike met while working at The Cincinnati Post. Mike became managing editor of The Kentucky Post and editor of Scripps-Howard newspapers in Hollywood, Fla., and Puget Sound, Wash. Later, until his retirement, he was in charge of all Scripps newspapers. He was in the Baylor class of 1970.
***
Sometimes a death hits everyone so hard that we never get over it.
Such was the death of Mike Dewlen. He wasn’t a journalism major, but in those days at Baylor everyone knew everyone.
Mike was that kind of guy. He was a football player and active in campus life. His father, Al Dewlen, who attended Baylor before World War II, was one of Texas’ most significant writers.
Mike went through the Marine Corps officer training program and was commissioned when he graduated in 1967. He was killed in Vietnam in June of 1968. I still remember what a shock it was when we heard the news. Someone actually said to me, “You think it could be a mistake?”
Bob Darden vividly captured the story on line last summer for The Baylor Line Foundation: Lost Father, Sleeping Son.
If you ever make it to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, look for Mike.
If you are like me, you won’t be able to hold back the tears.
***
David McHam graduated from Baylor in 1958 and taught in the journalism department from 1961 to 1974.
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