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Noel Edison Tomás, BJ '59

While finishing up his journalism degree in the spring semester of 1959, Noel E. Tomás, BJ '59, took a job working as the photographer for the 50th anniversary of the Missouri School of Journalism. The memories made during that event have remained with Tomás, who went on to a distinguished career in civil and military service. In preparation for the School's 100th anniversary, Tomás took time to reflect on that experience and how it prepared him for his career.

50th Anniversary Reflections

Centennial Timeline: 1950-1959 Noel E. Tomás, BJ '59, remembers standing on a table to take this photo of John H. Johnson, founder and publisher of EBONY and JET magazines, during the School's 50th anniversary celebration. University Archives, C:11/15/1.

What was your role during the 50th anniversary celebration?
My job in the 50th anniversary office primarily involved taking photos and identifying who I took pictures of while Peggy Phillips (the office manager) did the writing and publication makeup. Sam Montague (the executive director of the 50th anniversary) kept his public relations contacts constantly involved, with many either dropping in to meet with him or doing so off campus.

What was the environment like at the J-School while planning the event?
J-School seemed to be constantly scheduling lectures and special classes so students could meet and hear from the continuing stream of press dignitaries who roamed the school halls and the campus. The J-School daily, The Columbia Missourian, ran story after story and features. And KOMU-TV also captured its share of the visitors for special broadcasts.

Centennial Timeline: 1950-1959 Noel E. Tomás, BJ '59, photographed this overview of the World Press Congress held on the University of Missouri campus in March 1959, an event that brought journalism delegates from around the world to Columbia for a three-day convention. University Archives, C:11/15/1.

Centennial Timeline: 1950-1959 Noel E. Tomás, BJ '59, took this photo of Harry S. Truman listening to a World Press Congress speaker in 1959. University Archives, C:11/15/1.

The World Press Congress, attended by editors and journalists from around the world, was the keynote event of the 50th anniversary. Why do you think it was such a success?
Success of what was an unprecedented and not-replicated-since event centered on the largest gathering of the free and some controlled press practitioners and other dignitaries from around the world. Such a multi-lingual parade, with their respective countries' flags, seemed to be reminiscent of an opening Olympic entourage marching before cheering and awe-inspired spectators.

What are your favorite memories from the event?
The memory I probably will not forget is President Truman's teethy directive to me as an inexperienced photographer situated right in his line of travel. I was cursed by President Truman when I took his photo during the World Press Congress. Truman, with his bodyguard following just behind him, looked in my direction (I was apart from the bank of regular press photographers who were across the hall from me), and with a wide grin through his clenched teeth he said, "Shoot, (expletive deleted), shoot!" I got the pic.

As we prepare to celebrate the 100th anniversary, what are the biggest changes you've seen in the School and/or industry?
The ushering in of the electronic era of communications has shrunk the world we view in both time, in milliseconds, and distance, as though what happens around the globe is now our back yard.

How did working on that event change your life and/or career?
Perhaps, unconsciously, I pursued more of a public service career than in the print, broadcast or electronic media because I felt I could have some impact through government on the lives and welfare of people. And, I feel I have made an impact on many people and some populations.

What are you most proud of, looking back at the experience 50 years later?
I am pleased to have captured the images of that event and the significant people who took part.

Career Reflections

Tomás spent much of his career - both civilian and military - providing services to those who needed assistance. A 13-year veteran of the state of Connecticut, Tomás was a senior official in the State Department on Aging and the Department of Environmental Protection, in addition to serving as a communications specialist and union steward for the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Revenue Services. His leadership experience has consistently involved issues related to aging, health, education and welfare. His varied roles over the years have included senior regional specialist for the U.S. Administration on Aging; executive director of the Area Health Education Center of the Pioneer Valley (Massachusetts); and public relations director for the Kansas City (Kan.) Urban Renewal Agency, among others.

What did you do in your career?
Much of my civilian career was in the publication and communications fields, even though I worked many years in public service at the municipal, state and federal levels and with agencies under contracts with the federal government. In my 28-year military commissioned service, I was a public affairs officer and education and training officer with many assignments with foreign visiting air cadets and the U.S. Civil Air Patrol Squadrons and Wings. I also served as a director of the U.S. Air Force University National Staff College and an Air Force Regional Staff College, plus officer-in-charge for Connecticut's Emergency Preparedness military assistance office. Additionally, I was the statewide Emergency Evacuation Exercise controller and spokesman for the Governor's Civil Preparedness emergency public broadcast office.

You were involved in the Civil Rights movement both professionally and personally. How were you involved?
The late 50s and early 60s seethed with unrest, or so it seemed for me as a Kansas City Star/Times reporter-photographer. Covering not only the mundane attempts of local government to progress, police and sheriff's beats plus the Chamber of Commerce all vying for a few printed inches, I also reported on the growing social unrest until I became active in a very personal way. When my son, Gerald, was born in 1959 and my daughter, Lorna, in 1961, in Kansas City, Kan., the Civil Rights movement and protests were challenging the "establishment" politically as well as demonstrably. It had always troubled me that my marriage in Missouri in 1958 remained under a cloud. It was deemed illegal under the state's anti-miscegenation law because I was a person of color (Pilipino American — first generation) defined by that law as one who could not marry a Caucasian woman. Having Latin blood mixed with an Asian lineage tends to boil when I see social and racial injustices.

Your actions, which included heated correspondence with officials such as former Missouri Gov. Warren Hearnes, helped repeal the law. How did that affect you?
Feeling a measure of success probably steered me on to advocate for social and racial justice and equality in the years that followed when such issues arose. For example, I worked on the successful campaign of George Haley, brother of my friend, Alex Haley, who became the first African-American state senator in Kansas. As the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co. manager of community relations, I promoted minority upward mobility training. As executive secretary of the Commission on the Aging in Hartford, Conn., I led a statewide "tea bag revolt" advocating reduction of sales taxes paid by limited-income elderly for basic necessities.

You also were an advocate for elderly Americans. How were you involved in that issue?
When I was the chairman of the Hartford (Conn.) City Commission on the Aging, I was asked by U.S. Sen. Frank Church to appear as the lead witness before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. I testified on crimes and fraud committed against elderly Americans living in Hartford's public housing projects. That testimony started a nationwide movement in most states to deal with crimes and fraud affecting older people. I co-authored an article on the subject for Aging Magazine, a publication of the U.S. Administration on Aging. Additionally, U.S. Sen. Abraham Ribicoff wrote a citation about my work in the Congressional Record. With the National Council on the Aging and as a delegate-at-large to the 1961 White House Conference on Aging, I challenged Maine's governor to name a Passamaquoddy tribal elder to be appointed a delegate. I achieved a unanimous vote for the conference resolution from 1,500 attendees. Needless to say, the governor did not appoint a tribal delegate, but the Nixon White House did.

What is the best professional lesson you learned at the J-School?
The practice of the rudiments of leadership and planning - plus multitasking as an editor of Showme (the campus humor magazine) while making the grade in J-School and working to pay bills, at the 50th Anniversary office, for example - developed the discipline I called on for the many assignments I performed during my working years.

What advice do you have for current students?
Keep a working balance between your extracurricular and your pursuit of your degree. You will need both as you begin your pursuit of a career, which probably will not be exactly as you might have envisioned it to be.

What is your favorite J-School memory?
Best memory is a toss up between the fourth issue of Showme in December 1957 being banned by the University Board of Publications, and those of us on the staff recovering most of the distributed issue to be sent to the shredder; or being surrounded by the football team as I approached Neff Hall while the windows were filled with onlookers. The footballers were very unhappy with an editorial I wrote for The Maneater newspaper about their drunken orgy and forcing themselves on dates at a fraternity dance. Some of players ransacked our basement living quarters, but missed my room. A former football player's room was messed up and things taken. He went to the players' house at 2 a.m. and rooted all of them out of bed demanding the return of his property. Needless to say, they did not bother me again.