Walter Williams

In 1908, Walter Williams became the founding dean of the Missouri School of Journalism. Williams' career in journalism began in his hometown of Boonville, Mo., where at an early age he was a printer's devil (apprentice) for the Boonville Topic. He came to Columbia in 1889 to work for E.W. Stephens' Columbia Herald, where Williams gained a national reputation for turning the paper into what the trade press called, "America's model weekly." 1

Walter Williams Photo: University Archives, C:11/13/3.

A common sign of the times, Williams did not possess a college degree. Instead, he learned the publishing trade through hands-on experience, as most reporters and editors did at that time. Williams, however, fully supported the idea of a school of journalism at the University of Missouri that was championed by the Missouri Press Association as early as the 1870s. Critics of the idea scoffed, claiming that reporters and editors only could be trained in the printing office.

After much debate, the University's Board of Curators assigned a committee, which included Williams' boss, E.W. Stephens, to outline a journalism curriculum in 1898. Attempts to fund it, though, were repeatedly denied until 1906 when Williams, then a curator himself, led a committee that proposed that a school of journalism be established "as a Department of the University, co-ordinate in rank with the Departments of Law, Medicine and other Professional Schools." The curriculum was finally funded in 1908, and the School opened its doors on Sept. 14, 1908. Still a believer in hands-on training, however, Williams also established the University Missourian (now the Columbia Missourian), a community newspaper that served as the training lab for young reporters. The first edition of the paper was published on the first day of school.

The success of Williams' school of journalism elevated the reputation he had established as a young country editor. Williams had jumped onto the global scene in 1902 when he traveled to 27 nations on four continents to publicize the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair to the international press. After founding the School, Williams continued to travel around the globe, serving as a relentless publicist for both the School and the profession of journalism. He enjoyed profound respect at home and abroad, and as a result, Williams was the Board of Curators' unanimous choice to lead the University of Missouri as president during the Depression. Williams served dual roles of president and dean until his death in 1935, leaving behind the legacy of journalism education that would shape the future of the profession.

"Walter Williams was not born to greatness, neither was it thrust upon him. Literally, he achieved greatness." --Percy Bullen, London Daily Telegraph, Aug. 3, 1935 2

Walter Williams with journalist Percy Bullen at the St. Paul's Cathedral Stone, a gift from the British press to the Missouri School of Journalism. Photo: University Archives, C:11/13/3.

Accomplishments

• President, Missouri Press Association, 1889
• President, National Editorial Association, 1893
• Chairman, Columbia Board of Education, 1898
• Member, University of Missouri Board of Curators, 1899-1908
• Honorary Degree, Missouri Valley College, 1900
• Commissioner to the Foreign Press, St. Louis World's Fair, 1904
• Dean, Missouri School of Journalism, 1908-1935
• Honorary Degree, Kansas State University, 1909
• Author, The Journalist's Creed, 1914
• President, Press Congress of the World, 1915-1926
• President, Association of American Schools and Departments of Journalism, 1917
• Co-Founder, Missouri Interscholastic Press Association, 1923
• Honorary Degree, Washington University, 1926
• President, University of Missouri, 1930-1935

Career Timeline

• 1864 Born July 2 in Boonville, Mo.
• 1879 Received diploma from Boonville School District
• 1879 Hired as a printer's devil for 75 cents a week at the Boonville Topic
• 1884 Named editor of the Boonville Advertiser
• 1889 Elected president of the Missouri Press Association; youngest ever (age 25)
• 1889 Named editor of the Columbia (Mo.) Herald
• 1893 Elected president of the National Editorial Association; youngest ever (age 29)
• 1899 Appointed a University of Missouri curator
• 1902 Named Commissioner to the Foreign Press, 1904 St. Louis World's Fair
• 1906 Submitted resolution for school of journalism with other University of Missouri curators
• 1908 Appointed dean of the Missouri School of Journalism
• 1909 Traveled to the British Isles
• 1909 Initiated as the 68th member of the Acacia Fraternity-Missouri Chapter on March 22
• 1910 Established Editors Week, later named Journalism Week
• 1912 Co-founded the American Association of Teachers of Journalism with Willard G. Bleyer
• 1913-14 Took a nine-month world tour
• 1914 Wrote The Journalist's Creed
• 1915 Organized the Association of American Schools and Departments of Journalism
• 1915 Elected president of the Press Congress of the World
• 1916 Founded the Missouri Writers Guild
• 1917 Sent John B. Powell, BS '10, to teach the first advertising course in China
• 1918-19 Traveled to Asia
• 1919 Presided over groundbreaking for Jay H. Neff Hall
• 1919 Led the World Press Congress in Guatemala
• 1921 Traveled to China for lectures in Beijing and Shanghai
• 1922 Organized a national Committee on Classification for journalism schools
• 1923 Co-founded the Missouri Interscholastic Press Association with E.W. Tucker
• 1925 Traveled to Guatemala
• 1926 Traveled to Mexico
• 1928 Established a department of journalism at Yenching University in China
• 1930 Named president of the University of Missouri
• 1930 Established the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism
• 1932-33 Traveled to Europe; met with Adolf Hitler
• 1933 Presided over the School's 25th anniversary celebration
• 1935 Died on July 29

(Top) Thompson, front row, second from left, posed with other members of the Williams family in Boonville, Mo., in the early 1930s. His sister, Nancy (Thompson) Tipton, BJ '44, is fourth from the left, and Walter Williams is in the second row, third from left. "Aunt Sally," Sara Lockwood Williams, posed with the stone lantern from Japan that now sits in Thompson's yard (bottom left). The lantern also appeared on a Christmas card from Walter and Sara Williams in the early 1930s (bottom right). Images provided courtesy of Maj. James L. Thompson.

Williams Provided an Enduring Family Legacy

Maj. James L. Thompson remembers founding dean Walter Williams as "Uncle Walter." As a great-nephew of Walter Williams, he and his sister, Nancy (Thompson) Tipton, BJ '44, lived in the president's home on Francis Quadrangle for some time while Williams served as president of the University. Their mother, Jessie (Williams) Troxell, BJ '29, was Williams' niece. Thompson said Williams was like a father to him, sending him postcards from his worldly travels. Thompson and his wife, Barbara, have a stone lantern from Japan that once belonged to Williams. It is the sister lantern to the one dedicated at the School in 1926, and it represents the strong ties Williams built with Japan, the benefits of which Thompson enjoyed years later in Japan himself.

"I was a cryptographer in Japan with Gen. Douglas McArthur's staff after World War II, and I liked it so much I stayed there a year as a civilian employee. During that time, I took a government course designed for military personnel that helped prepare me to take the entrance exam to the University of Missouri. One day, I was speaking with a Japanese man who had asked me why Japan wasn't getting the aid under the Marshall Plan like Europe was. While debating that, I mentioned that I was a great nephew of Walter Williams, and to my surprise the man had known him. The man took me to the press club of Tokyo, where the other Japanese press men gave me a warm welcome because I was related to Walter Williams. Uncle Walter had helped them start the press club and had helped them with their newspapers and other journalistic endeavors. I became good friends with one of the press club members, Tsurujiro Sugimoto. His father had been the Japanese ambassador to Germany, and he spoke English very well. He ended up taking me all over Japan. He took me to the horse races just eight months after the surrender, and it was amazing how fast the Japanese were working on recovery efforts."

Maj. Thompson received his bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Missouri in 1951. He went on to earn a master's degree from the University of Southern California.

The Joy of Life

During Walter Williams' travels to Japan, he wrote the following personal statement, The Joy of Life. His great-nephew, Maj. James L. Thompson, BA '51, has a copy hanging in his home.

The Joy of Life

To forbear; to fight bravely and to forgive; to protect and comfort friends; to hold the vision unobscured and in patience; to work, to hope and to make glad; to keep the dear ones happier by our nearness; to bear uncomplainingly and in silence sorrow, disappointment and dismay; to live agreeably with other people for other people's good, unseeking applause; and, above all, neither to reproach, nor to trifle, nor to turn away; but with faith unswerving to press onward.

Shall not these bring Joy?

Walter Williams
Tokyo, Japan