By Bob Valentine
We celebrate the birthday of the man who left a legacy of laughter, a legacy of caring and a legacy of learning: Dr. Robert H. McGaughey III, the man we all affectionately called “Doc.” Doc would have been 79 on Feb. 18.
Doc died at age 76 in June 2019.
The legacy continues through Doc’s last gift of caring and generosity: the McGaughey Fund For Excellence, established to help support the mission to educate future journalism and mass communications students.
Doc first came to Murray State in 1961. As an undergraduate, he was an active member of Pi Kappa Alpha, the Murray State ROTC, the Murray State News and Omicron Delta Kappa honor society. After graduation, he began his master’s degree in journalism as the first student in our graduate program. He received his doctorate in mass communication from the Ohio University.
He returned to Murray State as a journalism instructor and adviser to the Murray State News in 1969. In 1974, he succeeded L.J. Hortin as chairman of the journalism department, a position he held for nearly a quarter of a century, adding three more majors along the way.
And that’s where the legend of Doc was born. Quick with a joke or a smile, students loved his classes. They learned valuable skills to help them succeed in journalism and mass communications, and they learned the value of humor.
“If you want to be a great communicator, remember: First, you have to listen, and second: never, ever lose your sense of humor.”
Doc
The students of Doc’s student days had a view of news that is much different from today’s young journalists. These folks have grown up in an atmosphere of opinionated presentation of fact and supposition, often mixed so thoroughly that it’s hard to tell them apart. Where David Brinkley was criticized for letting his eyebrow rise and quarter-inch while quoting the President, today’s news readers feel almost obligated to explain the obvious — in their own terms, of course.
Teaching today’s journalists starts from scratch. News has to be explained and then shown, and then explained again. It takes time, resources and dedication. More than teaching the rules of grammar and the guidelines of ethics, it is the instilling of a deep-rooted philosophy of the crafts that safeguard our democracy. It is not a branch of the government, nor a job; it is a calling. It is a lifetime commitment for those who would practice well, and a crusade for those who would teach them.
The McGaughey Fund For Excellence supports that crusade. A “fair share” of a dwindling state budget is not enough to take on the challenge of the future. Ethics, skill, and the mastery of a dozen technologies does not come easily nor does it come cheaply.
The JMC community invites you to join the crusade for ethical expressions of a well-understood reality. That’s the path Doc blazed, and we should finish the walk for him. As he reminded us so often:
“If you want to be a great communicator, remember: First, you have to listen, and second: never, ever lose your sense of humor.”
