Retired dean, father of UNL journalism college, dies
By Patti Vannoy
J Alumni News staff
Patti Vannoy, a current news-editorial student, wrote Neale Copple's obituary for the Lincoln Journal Star, where she is an intern. It is reprinted by permission.
R. Neale Copple was the kind of guy Tom Brokaw was writing about in "The Greatest Generation."
He fought great battles overseas, came back to have a great career and helped others strive for greatness as well.
"There have been a lot of university journalism administrators," said Doug Anderson, dean of the College of Communications at Penn State, "but I sincerely and truly believe that Neale was the very best one."
Copple, 79, was director of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Journalism from 1966 until 1979, when the school became an independent college and he took the title of dean, which he held for 11 years.
"That school was his life, and the success of that school was his life," said his son, Bob Copple.
Neale Copple died Tuesday, March 18, of cancer of the connective tissues. He is survived by his wife, Olive, two children and two grandsons. A memorial service was held that Friday at First-Plymouth Congregational Church.
Born in Albuquerque, N.M., Copple served in the Army Air Force as a lead bombardier during World War II and flew in 29 missions over Germany.
His B-24 was once shot down behind enemy lines, said Gil Savery, former managing editor of the Lincoln Journal, and Copple carried his bomb sight back to the Allies - though the Germans already had several of the new, highly classified devices.
He returned from the war to graduate from NU in 1947 with a bachelor of arts degree in journalism and earn a master of science degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., in 1948.
Copple returned to Nebraska and worked at the Lincoln Journal from 1951 until 1959. As city editor, he organized the reporters covering Charles Starkweather's 1958 killing spree that left 11 people dead. His involvement earned him a Pulitzer Prize nomination.
He also wrote "Tower of the Plains," a history of Lincoln, to coincide with the city's centennial in 1959.
Copple began teaching journalism at the university in 1957, quitting the Journal to teach full time two years later.
Copple had a way of getting the best out of his students, said Roger Boye, a former student and now assistant dean and associate professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
"He demanded a lot, he expected a lot. He had very high standards, and therefore, as a student, you wanted to be very prepared," Boye said.
James Risser agreed. The two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner and former student of Copple took his depth-reporting class in the early 1960s.
"I thought that the class was an inspiration, and it really, heavily influenced the way I worked later as a journalist," he said.
In 1966, Copple became director of the school, which was part of the College of Arts and Sciences. His influence helped the school grow into a freestanding college.
"That (college) was his child. He gave birth to it," said Alfred "Bud" Pagel, now a professor emeritus whom Copple hired in 1982. And the dean succeeded in his mission, he said, to build a school whose graduates could function in any newsroom.
Pagel said Copple told the same awful joke at graduation every year: "This is the time of year when parents all believe in genetics and teachers all believe in environment."
Copple was a hands-on director who didn't lose touch with his students, Boye said. He had a great memory and would often stop students in the hallway to ask them about how a paper or class was going.
Wilma Crumley, his associate dean, said decisions were always made democratically, which sometimes required long faculty meetings to reach consensus.
"He made it an enjoyable place for both students and faculty, even when they were working probably harder than they ever had," Crumley said.
After retiring as dean in 1990, Copple served as special assistant to the chancellor and consultant to the university president until 1993.
But his sphere of influence extended beyond the university, as his 12-page resume will attest.
"He did it all in journalism education. You can go to any journalism school in the country and they'll know the name Neale Copple, at least if they've been around the track a couple times," Boye said.
Copple was a central figure in setting the standards for all journalism schools and served as an accrediting committee chairman at least once a year, said Suzanne Shaw, executive director of the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.
He was an important resource for the William Randolph Hearst Foundation's Hearst Journalism Awards program, said director Jan Watten, who didn't have any journalism background when she took over the national program in 1986.
"He basically took me under his wing," she said.
He judged various competitions for the Nebraska Press Association, said executive director Allen Beermann, and had to bow out of judging on the day he was admitted to a hospital, about five weeks ago.
"I guess I'd put it this way," said Beermann. "When the final book of journalism is ever written, Dean Copple will be more than a footnote. I believe he'll probably be a chapter."
