Roll back the clock 55 years. Then-pledge Walter Hussman stood in the front hall of the DKE House at the base of the staircase regaling us with his rendition of the “pig-sooey-Razorback” Arkansas cheer.
When Walter came through the front door of the DKE House in 1964, fresh from Little Rock, Arkansas, by way of the Lawrenceville School, little did any of us know that this unassuming, but visionary, young man from would make us so proud in the years to come.
By now, most of you know the story of Walter E. Hussman, Jr., our distinguished DKE brother who, along with his family, recently gave a $25 million gift to the UNC School of Journalism. The school has now been renamed in his honor.
As a member of the astonishing class of 1968 Walter also been an enthusiastic supporter of the DKE House over the years and recalls his time at 132 South Columbia as “some of the best years of my life.”
Hussman’s unprecedented grant to the university will help ensure that the school which now bears his name remains one of the very best in the country. It was also a gift to the profession of journalism in America.
“It would be difficult to overstate the impact of this gift during this pivotal time of… mounting distrust amid campaigns to discredit reporting, journalism and media institutions,” said Susan King, Dean of the Hussman School of Journalism.
It all came about because of Walter’s commitment to the principles of the news business he believes are disappearing today: Fairness, impartiality, balance. In short, getting the story right. The whole story. Both sides. These core values Hussman and his company have embraced will now be physically etched in stone in UNC’s Carroll Hall.
Hussman grew up in the newspaper business and now, after three generations, chairs his family’s company, WHECO Media, Inc. The company, founded in 1909, operates 13 daily newspapers, 11 weekly newspapers and 13 cable television companies in six states.
Young Walter started working for his father on weekends at age 10 making 25 cents an hour. He remembers when he earned his first dollar which he spent partly on cheeseburger and fries at a greasy spoon in Camden, Arkansas. Plenty has happened since that milestone meal.
Hussman was named Publisher of the Year in 2008 by Editor and Publisher magazine. He served on the board of directors of The Associated Press from 2000 to 2009 and C-Span from 1995 to 2003. He’s championed education and after-school programs in the state of Arkansas. He was on the Arkansas Arts Center board of directors, on the board of the Arkansas Repertory Theater and on the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Society board of directors.
While on the symphony board, he started “Pops on the River,” a patriotic symphony and fireworks show on the Arkansas River in Little Rock.
At the DKE House, Walter was social chairman for two years and, by his own admission, was “having a really good time.” Maybe too good a time, he recalls, because one of his professors got on him about skipping class. Hussman says, “He was putting a big burr right under my saddle.”
After earning a degree in journalism at Carolina, Hussman went on to Columbia for an M.B.A. He then took a job as a reporter at Forbes magazine in New York. He loved living and working in the city, but eventually returned to Arkansas to work in the family business.
He married Robena “Ben” Kendrick, an Ole Miss grad and fellow journalism student, in November 1975. The Hussmans have a son, Palmer, and two twin daughters, Eliza and Olivia, as well as eight grandkids. All of them live in Little Rock.
On a recent afternoon in Chapel Hill, Walter Hussman again stood on the DKE House staircase where he elaborated on his personal mission not just to ensure the continued success of his company, but his vision for the future of journalism.
“Once, you could trust a journalist to tell you the facts and let you make up your own mind,” said Hussman, “but Americans are beginning to realize they can’t trust a lot of what they see on the internet…We need to renew the values, standards and practices that have stood the test of time.”
Hussman hopes his investment in UNC will not just help train future writers and editors, but can help reverse the decline in public trust of the news media in every form: Print, digital and broadcast.
“Journalism is so important to America’s democracy, it’s so important to our future, and it’s so important to reestablish the trust with the public,” Hussman added.
So, a round of clicks for Brother Walter Hussman and his gift for the ages. As the 17th Century English writer and author of The Pilgrim’s Progress John Bunyan wrote: “You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.”
Walter, generations of journalists and those of us read them will be forever in your debt.
