Glenn H. Parsons Jr., BJ ’55, writes: Congrats to KBIA’s good work with NPR. Lots of good years and noteworthy successes. I was KBIA’s first news director in 1955, shortly after they went on air and back when the J-School was still affiliated with competitor KFRU. On air at 7 a.m., off at sunset. My few noteworthy accomplishments included being the first Missouri radio station to report Roger Bannister’s “breaking” of the four-minute mile and a brilliant interview with Academy Award-winning actor Thomas Mitchell, who won his Oscar for the first “Stagecoach” movie. I still have a picture with him at the mic in studios well away from the J-School campus. After Navy public affairs duty in Hollywood, Calif., my entire career was spent in corporate public relations: General Dynamics/Astronautics, John Hancock Financial Services, Eastern Airlines and Entergy Corporation. I am now retired in Falmouth, Mass., on beautiful Cape Cod.

Updated: February 17, 2012