Tuck's Enthusiasm, High Expectations Transcended Classroom
By ASHLEY FIEDLER
Everyone who knows George Tuck has a story to tell.
Aine Gianoli, an undergraduate agriculture journalist with an emphasis in news-editorial, could not focus a camera her first day of beginning photojournalism class last year, but by the end of the semester, she had taken more than 300 photos for a final project that required seven pictures.
Her photojournalism professor, George Tuck looked at all of Gianoli's negatives. "He sat down with me and looked at all of them. He helped me get an eye for a good photo and how to put a story together," Gianoli said.
While Butch Ireland was competing in the championship round of the Hearst competition in the late 1980s, a lens fell out of his glasses and into the San Francisco Bay. Ireland said he called Tuck in a frenzy, asking him to look up an optometrist on O Street. With Tuck's help, Ireland replaced his glasses and finished the competition.
Joel Sartore, a photographer for National Geographic, was a student of Tuck's in the early 1980s.
"One of my first days in class, I passed him in the hallway and he said 'I'm expecting great things of you,' and I believed him," Sartore said.
High expectations and a willingness to help are a few of the qualities that characterize the dedication of the Fred and Gladys Seaton professor.
Tuck earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, and master's degree in journalism with an emphasis in photojournalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1970.
Although he did not apply to teach at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the journalism college recruited him, and the Texan joined the faculty in 1970.
Three buildings, countless photographs, 33 years and thousands of students later, Tuck retired on Aug. 29, 2003, after teaching a summer course on cyberspace and the mass media.
Along the way, he touched the lives of university faculty and journalism students.
Don Gregory, director of general studies at UNL, met Tuck in the summer of 1977 after signing up for a beginning photography night class. Gregory said Tuck's balance of patience, humor and high expectations impressed him. He said he immediately respected Tuck and liked him as a person.
A black and white photograph by Tuck hangs on the wall above Gregory's desk.
Gerik Parmele, now a photojournalist for The Grand Island Independent, said he came to Tuck as a wet-behind-the-ears visiting student. Tuck took the time to talk to Parmele on a Saturday.
Eventually Parmele took classes as a visiting student and then transferred to UNL.
"He always had time for me, made me feel worthwhile and accepted," Parmele said of Tuck.
Tuck's interest in students and his willingness to talk in depth with recruits, made him a tremendous asset to the university, Gregory said.
Mike Stricklin, a news-editorial professor who came to UNL in 1977, described Tuck as having "a rigorous standard of quality that he applies with equal severity to himself and his students."
Students agreed. "The thing about George is that he expected a lot. You had to spend hours working on projects," said Lane Hickenbottom, a photojournalist.
Tuck agreed, too. "I really wanted students to be aggressive about their own education, for them to be passionate enough that they will go beyond what's asked of them," he said.
It was an expectation Tuck set through example.
Broadcasting professor Peter Mayeux said Tuck spent a lot of time at the college working with students and working on his own projects.
It wasn't unusual to see Tuck in the journalism building on a Saturday.
If he could instill only one thing in students, Tuck said he wanted it to be passion. "I'd love for it to be journalism, but if it's not journalism, then they need to care deeply about something," Tuck said.
Julia Dean has known Tuck for 30 years, first as a student and later as a colleague. Dean said Tuck succeeded in his mission to instill passion in students.
"He taught us at a young age to take photojournalism seriously," said Dean, who now teaches photography in California at Julia Dean & Associates.
Tuck instilled more than passion in the students who sat in his classrooms, sometimes two semesters. He typically taught both typography and beginning photojournalism, which meant news-editorial majors had to get by Tuck twice.
Tuck taught students that "you can go anywhere on earth and cover anything if you just smile," Sartore said. Sartore, who does not speak Portuguese, said he recently came back from Brazil where things went great because he smiled.
Some students also had to get by Tuck's Texas chili. Tuck used to have an annual chili feed for students and faculty, Gregory said.
Parmele went to a couple of Tuck's chili feeds. "The chili was so hot it would be melting the plastic ware. We'd have to bring milk and sour cream to cut it down," he said.
Ireland remembers similar occasions. "Those were really fun times. In college, I don't know how many professors will invite you to their houses," said Ireland, now a photographer for the Bryan-College Station (Texas) Eagle.
Hickenbottom said Tuck and his wife once invited him over for Thanksgiving dinner when he could not be with family.
Even though he's retired, Tuck continues to receive calls and e-mails from former students. When students call with questions or drop by with good photos, it "shows there is something that transcended the classroom," Tuck said.
"I still call him as my teacher," Dean said "He'll always know more than I do."
Tuck continued to learn throughout his career.
He spent a year in Germany during the late 1970s studying printing press technology, photography exhibitions and photographic technology and shooting pictures.
During another sabbatical in the late 1980s, he returned to the field to work as a graphics researcher for Newsday in Melville, N.Y., and as picture editor for both the Associated Press in New York City and for the Houston Chronicle.
During the spring of 1998 Tuck shot photographs for his "Flat Places and Interesting People" exhibit. The exhibit is currently at the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg, Russia, but was due back in the states by March.
Tuck returned from sabbaticals with more enthusiasm and examples, which he used to bring the world into the classroom, Mayeux said.
Tuck's photography elaborates ordinary lives and adds new dimensions of understanding about lives and places, Stricklin said.
Tuck's photos hang in the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, in the Christlieb Gallery of the Center for Great Plains Studies, in the Federal University of Piaui, Brazil, and in multiple private collections.
Although his photography may show the ordinary, colleagues and students say Tuck is anything but ordinary.
Students nominated Tuck for two of his most memorable awards, the Robin F. Garland award from the National Press Photographer's Association for distinguished service as a photojournalism educator and the College of Journalism Student Advisory award for service to the college.
"Teaching helped me learn more than I thought possible," Tuck said of trying to stay a step ahead of students. Tuck said the way students approached a subject, their questions and their field productions taught him more than what he taught them.
"I enjoyed seeing the light bulbs come on or at times glow faintly," Tuck said.
Adrian Sanchez, an undergraduate news-editorial major, said, "Tuck opened my eyes to the world of photography and what it had to offer. The fact I'm interested in photography cinched my career in news."
"He should be very proud of what he's accomplished as a teacher," Dean said.
A look at Tuck's address book with 30 years of contact information on former students is testament to students' admiration for their former journalism professor.
"He knows his students. They are not just numbers and faces to him," Gregory said.
