'Six G's, love for teaching guide Brinkman
By Ruth Maher
J Alumni News staff
Del Brinkman is the eternal optimist.
As a veteran newsman, academic and administrator, he's seen history happen and related it to the masses.
In his commencement address at the University of Colorado last May, he told the audience he had a system to keep a turbulent lifetime in perspective.
"Graduates, allow me to leave you with some suggestions for the future," said Brinkman, the retiring dean of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UC- Boulder. "They could be called the six G's of life."
He said a person who is great and good, grateful and gracious, generous and glad is likely to live a happy, successful life.
Brinkman should know. Even as a schoolboy living in rural Kansas, he was a determined young journalist, busily germinating seeds of success.
"I wanted to be in journalism from my freshman year in high school when I worked on the school newspaper. I had a great English and journalism teacher in high school who encouraged me and got me excited about journalism," Brinkman said from his home in Bloomington, Ind. "He left teaching and went to work for the Emporia (Kansas) Gazette. I followed him there and worked all four years of my college days."
Brinkman said he learned a great deal working in Emporia, both during and after college.
"I did all the things you do at a daily newspaper in a small town," he said. "I was a reporter, a copy editor, wire editor, sports editor, city hall reporter, photographer and a number of other things in my six years at the Gazette."
Nonetheless, Brinkman trained as a teacher at Emporia State University and in 1960 decided to indulge an old desire and put his degree to use.
"I enjoyed newspaper work very much, but I had always had a dream of teaching ... so I took a teaching job at Leavenworth (Kan.) High School just to test my interest," he said.
He never looked back from the academic life. He taught journalism at Kansas State University before receiving professional degrees in journalism from Indiana University. Armed with that education, Brinkman returned to Kansas. He became dean of the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 1975 and vice chancellor for academic affairs there in 1986.
As Brinkman rose in the ranks of administration at Kansas, his heart was still with teaching.
"I loved teaching in college, especially reporting and the law of the press. I decided in 1993 to return to full-time teaching, when I was offered the opportunity to be the first director of journalism programs for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation," he said.
The foundation, based in Miami, promotes education for current and future journalists through grants totaling some $193 million to date.
Although the new position again made Brinkman more an administrator than an educator, he said the experience was one of the best of his life.
"I loved it and did it for a little over seven years. I got to meet top journalists from all over the world and helped make grants that are still causing improvements in journalism to this day," he said.
In January 2001, wanting to return to academic life, Brinkman left his post as director and decided to continue as an adviser from a distance.
The University of Colorado's journalism school was in need of a new dean, and Brinkman had the experience to take over. He pulled up roots and headed for Boulder.
Interim dean Stewart Hoover addressed students and faculty in 2000 to prepare them for Brinkman's leadership.
He said, " We on the faculty are already realizing what friends and alumni of the school will soon know, too: that Del Brinkman will be a highly successful dean of the school. ... We are confident that we are at the beginning of a great new era for the school."
Sadly, the era lasted less than a year.
In July 2001, Brinkman suffered a heart attack and had emergency open-heart surgery. Attributing at least some of his health problem to the stresses of his work, Brinkman chose to retire in 2002.
In a press release issued by CU, Provost Phil DiStefano was quoted as saying, "In the short time that Del was dean of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, he has made a significant impact on the quality of faculty, students and programs.
"He has the respect of the Boulder campus deans and members of the media throughout the state of Colorado and the country," DiStefano continued. "Personally, I will miss his wisdom, integrity and expertise in journalism and mass communication."
Stewart Hoover, who had served as interim dean before Brinkman's arrival, took over again at his retirement.
"It's a horrific disappointment for all the faculty," Hoover said of Brinkman's resignation. "There are few people as experienced and well-known as Del, so it's really a great loss."
Associate Dean Meg Moritz agreed. She told Colorado Daily staff writer Fred Baerkircher, "The faculty are not unanimous on much, but we all feel a terrible sense of loss. We all feel badly for him because he had some great dreams and aspirations for this school. I think he's impressed everyone with his humanity, and I am terrifically sorry to see him go."
Brinkman philosophically cited some of his six G's as reasons to retire. He said he felt that with his health problems he could do neither a good nor a great job of turning around Colorado's languishing journalism college.
"I've been a dean before and a vice chancellor before, and I don't like to do these things halfway. I'm not getting any younger, and you really need a healthy, aggressive person in a job like this. I could probably continue doing it, but I wouldn't be doing it the way it should be done," he said.
Brinkman was at UNL in April for the college's J Days celebration. He received the Dean's Award in recognition of his service to journalism and journalism education.
