Dean Mills to Be Inducted into Missouri Newspaper Hall of Fame
Columbia, Mo. (June 29, 2012) — Six people, including Dean Mills, professor and dean of the Missouri School of Journalism, will be inducted into the Missouri Newspaper Hall of Fame. The induction program will be Sept. 21 during the 146th annual convention of the Missouri Press Association (MPA) at the Holiday Inn Select in Columbia.
Other inductees are Dave Berry of Bolivar, the late Bill French of Eminence, Tom Miller Sr. of Washington, and Steve and Linda Oldfield of Adrian.
Mills began his career as a professional journalist. He became Moscow Bureau Chief for the Baltimore Sun in 1969, after earning a master’s degree in journalism at the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in Russian and journalism at the University of Iowa. From 1972 to 1975 he was a Sun correspondent in Washington, D.C., where he covered the Watergate scandal, the resignation of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision.
Mills began his academic career at the University of Illinois, where he completed a doctorate in communications in 1981. Before coming to Missouri in 1989, he served as director of Pennsylvania State University‘s School of Journalism and then as coordinator of graduate study in communications at California State University, Fullerton.
His research interests include international journalism, journalism ethics, cross-cultural journalism and qualitative methods. Mills is an author of a Ford Foundation study on race and the news and a book on cross-cultural journalism.
During his deanship, the School raised private funds to build Lee Hills Hall, which houses the Columbia Missourian, and to renovate two existing buildings and build one new one to create the Reynolds Institute facilities. Eight of the school’s endowed chairs, including the Missouri Community Newspaper Management Chair, were funded during his tenure.
Newspaper Hall of Fame inductees are chosen from among people nominated by friends, associates and family members. Induction is based on a long career of sound, ethical journalism and service to the Missouri newspaper industry and the community.
This will be the 22nd group to be inducted into the Newspaper Hall of Fame, which was established by MPA in 1991.
Inductees or members of their families receive Pinnacle Awards. Plaques with their likenesses are on permanent display in the MPA office in Columbia and in the student lounge in Lee Hills Hall at the Missouri School of Journalism.
Updated: June 9, 2020