Contact: Maridith Geuder
A Mississippi native who is a senior fellow at the New York-based Freedom Forum Media Studies Center visits Mississippi State Monday and Tuesday [April 2 and 3].
John Calhoun Merrill, a journalism professor emeritus at the University of Missouri-Columbia, is coming to the Starkville university to formally donate his professional papers and speak to journalism and other communication majors. He is a Yazoo City native and 1949 graduate of what then was Delta State College (now University).
Over his long career, Merrill has authored some 30 books on journalism and philosophy, including "Existential Journalism," a classic text published in 1977 that calls for an emphasis on the individual journalist, personal freedom and personal responsibility.
On Monday, the transfer of his papers to Mitchell Memorial Library will take place in a private campus ceremony attended by many state media representatives.
On Tuesday, he is scheduled to deliver a public lecture in the library's John Grisham Room. Though primarily intended for MSU journalism students, the 9:30 a.m. event is open to all and will be broadcast on the library's web site, http://library.msstate.edu/.
Before serving as a wire editor for the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Merrill worked as a high school student for state journalism legend Hodding Carter at Greenville's Delta Democrat Times. He also has been a member of the Bolivar Commercial staff in Cleveland.
A World War II veteran, Merrill began a career in journalism education after completing a master's at Louisiana State University and a doctorate at the University of Iowa. Among his well-known books are "The Imperative of Freedom," "Media, Messages and Men" and "The Elite Press."
He also wrote the first book on international journalism, "The Foreign Press," published by LSU Press in 1964.
A University of Missouri Outstanding Journalism Teacher Award in 1970 and Delta State University's designation as its outstanding alumnus in 1971 are among his many career honors.
Merrill's papers join a growing body of mass communications collections housed in Mitchell Memorial's special collections department. In addition to the papers of Hodding and Betty Carter, the collection includes those of former New York Times executive editor Turner Catledge, former National Geographic editor Carolyn Bennett Patterson, and syndicated columnists Norma Fields, Bill Minor and Sid Salter, among others.
By virtue of the Catledge holdings, the library is a Society of Professional Journalists-designated National Historic Site in American Journalism. It also is the official repository of the papers of the Mississippi Press Association, one of the oldest such organizations in the United States.