Becky was a year ahead of Wes while attending UNL. The couple never had a class together, but Wes remembers a J School professor talking about a student named Rebecca Ross because she won a Hearst award for news writing.
“I really don't think Becky had any idea I existed,” Wes said.
Becky graduated from the college in 1974, then for six months she worked as a reporter at the Fremont Tribune. She went to the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern to earn her master’s of science in journalism. In 1976, she moved to Florida to work as a reporter at the Boca Raton News.
Wes graduated from the College of Journalism and Mass Communications in 1975, and his first job as a night police reporter was at The Lincoln Star. A year later he moved to New York to work for the Binghamton Evening Press. Wes found out about the job from another CoJMC grad who was working there at the time.
A year and a half later, Wes got a call from CoJMC alumni Mike Baxter, the city editor for The Miami Herald. He offered Wes an interview for a job at the paper because CoJMC mentioned his name.
In 1978, CoJMC alumna Sara (Schweider) Kennedy hosted a party at her house in Tampa for any fellow alumni working at Florida newspapers. Becky and Wes both attended, their connection was instant and the night ended with Becky giving Wes her business card. On his drive back to Miami that night, Wes remembered thinking he might have just met his future wife.
Fast forward a few years, they got married and were both working for the Miami Herald. Wes was the assistant state editor and Becky was working in the Broward County Bureau as a reporter. After their sons Ross and Reed were born, Becky took some time off then switched to working part-time on the Broward Bureau copy desk.
Wes worked at the Miami Herald for 14 years and Becky for 13. They moved to Washington D.C. in 1992. Wes was offered a job at Knight-Ridder Tribune Information Services (which later became McClatchy Tribune Information Services) and he worked there until his retirement in 2014.
Reed followed in their footsteps as a journalist. He thought he wanted to be in advertising, while in college at Virginia Commonwealth University, but became a journalist after starting a blog about the National Hockey League team the Washington Capitals. He learned a lot about sports writing and reporting and eventually got hired by Express, a free publication distributed by The Washington Post, to cover the Washington Capitals.
Now Reed works for PowerSpike, a company that connects advertisers with influencers on Twitch. Twitch is a live streaming platform for video game players. He is married with one daughter and another on the way.
“Becky and I laugh about the fact that in high school Reed watched a lot of hockey and played video games,” Wes said. “We always used to yell at him that doing those things would never get him a job and he sure proved us wrong."
Ross is a lawyer in Westminster, Maryland. He played lacrosse at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania and his undergraduate degree was in business.
“After working in insurance for a year, Ross decided to go to law school,” Becky said. “He’s married with three kids under the age of 3 which makes for a fun but chaotic household.”
Starting in 1992 Becky worked as a writer for Presstime Magazine, a monthly magazine for the Newspaper Association of America. She worked her way up to the position of editor. In 2009, the organization downsized and halted print production.
Becky shifted her focus and started technical writing and editing for a defense contractor in the Washington area. She was writer and editor for a company called ManTech for 10 years before retiring a few years ago. She continues to freelance edit for them now.
During the interview, we asked the couple for advice they might have for any of our students who are graduating as couples.
“After 41 years of marriage I feel totally unprepared to answer that question,” Wes joked.
They agreed that it helps to have things in common, but it also helps to have your significant other look at things from a different point of view.
Years later while unpacking some old boxes, Wes found a program from when he was inducted into Kappa Tau Alpha, the journalism honorary society, in May 1974. A senior student always said the introductory remarks each year at the ceremony. The student chosen that year was Rebecca Ross. It turns out the couple did meet during their J School days; they just didn’t even know it.
