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'Dr Bob' retires after 17 years at C&J

by JASON KLEYMANN
C&J 475

When UNM Associate Professor Bob Gassaway retires from his position in the communication and journalism department this summer, he'll be leaving behind some big shoes to fill, and not just his size 16 New Balances.

After 19 years as professor, instructor and mentor, the man affectionately referred to as "Dr. Bob" by students and faculty alike will retire to pursue his ambitions as a novelist.

Over the years, Gassaway has provided a guiding light to students seeking to enter the world of professional print journalism with his knowledge, experience and passion for the craft.

"The media, and newspapers in particular, play an important role in our modern democracy," Gassaway said. "I believe that our democracy would not survive without the modern media. I buy the libertarian view that is reflected in the First Amendment, that the people are intelligent and will make good decisions if they have good information."

Jessica Del Curto, current managing editor of the Daily Lobo, has taken three of Gassaway's classes and said he has begun them all with the same story, one about his first editor stressing the importance of meeting deadlines.

"He always gets real serious and comes up to one of the students and leans close enough to make them uncomfortable," Del Curto said. "Then he pretends to take a cigar out of his mouth and in a gruff voice says, '5 o'clock is a deadline Gassaway, not a suggestion.'"

Gassaway began his career in his home town of Waco, Texas, working for a station that combined television and radio services, covering events such as one of Timothy Leary's trials, plane crashes and the purchase of land by the Branch Davidians for their Mount Carmel Center.

"When I was 17 years old, I went and covered an airplane crash in which everyone died after the wing came off," Gassaway said. "After the wing comes off the earth shall rise up and smite thee."

After about a year, Gassaway decided to make the switch to print journalism.

"I decided that I did not enjoy broadcasting as much as I thought I would, so I just went to work for the newspaper," Gassaway said.

After working at the local paper for about a year, Gassaway started reporting for the prestigious news agency The Associated Press. The job took him from the arid Texas desert to the lush canopy jungle of Vietnam, where many adventures awaited him.

"I first went into Vietnam in April of '66," Gassaway said. "I was chauffeured around in a pre-World War II French Citroen by a Vietnamese driver."

Gassaway said journalists in Vietnam didn't encounter the same risks of kidnapping that journalists in Iraq currently face.

"I always went around dressed in a sports coat and loafers, so I was identifiable as a civilian," Gassaway said.

There were still instances where he found himself in danger. While out in the field one day, Gassaway decided to venture out into a rice paddy, where he quickly found himself shoeless and under fire.

"After my first step, the muck, which was probably hundreds of years old, held onto my shoe," Gassaway said. "So there I was standing on one leg trying to fish my wingtip out when I noticed something like angry hornets buzzing past me. I left the shoe there.

"I found I could get awfully flat sometimes," he said. "I figured at 6'4" and about 325 pounds, I was probably the biggest, whitest target in Vietnam."

After a year in Vietnam, The Associated Press put Gassaway's fluent Spanish to work in Miami.

"Journalism has carried me all over the world, literally," Gassaway said. "I've been in 22 countries and 24 states, most of it on expense account."

At age 36, after 19 years in various roles in the newsroom, Gassaway decided to put the Dr. in "Dr. Bob," obtaining his doctorate in sociology from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

"Journalists spend most of their lives quoting the thoughts of other people, and I wanted to be the one generating thoughts for a change," he said.

After obtaining his doctorate in sociology, Gassaway started his academic career at the University of Missouri's prestigious School of Journalism, where he would not only find students awaiting him, but colorful colleagues such as George Pica.

"I was editing at the newsroom one summer day, and I saw this man staring into a terminal and typing every once and a while, and I thought myself: 'That is the oldest student ever or someone wandered in off the street,'" Pica said. "I found out it was Bob Gassaway."

Gassaway and Pica quickly found they not only shared a passion for writing and journalism, but also had the same dry sense of humor.

On one trip to Singapore, Pica mailed Gassaway a postcard with a picture of a giant Buddha. Pica wrote on the back: "I can't put my finger on it, but something about Singapore reminds me of you."

"When Bob would get mad at me, he would tell that he was going to name me as one of his pallbearers," Pica said.

"I always thought that would be a pretty bad punishment," Gassaway said.

After three years at the Missouri School of Journalism, Gassaway made his way back to the Southwest, beating out 59 other applicants for his current position at UNM.

"I'm sorry about the other 59 people that didn't get the job," Gassaway said, "but I liked it real well."

Richard Pfaff, the student publications business manager when Gassaway was hired, said Gassaway immediately took to his new position.

"He took over 375 [Intermediate Reporting] from Ruth Ann Ragland, who had taken it over from Tony Hillerman," Pfaff said. "He had some big shoes to fill from that little woman."

Since then, "Dr. Bob" has helped guide young journalists through the classroom and beyond, not just teaching but also serving as the head of the student publications board and helping hand to the Daily Lobo staff.

"I've been defending the independence of this newspaper for 19 years," Gassaway said.

Gassaway said seeing his former students names on the front page of a newspaper is just as rewarding as writing the stories himself.

"It turns my crank as much to work with my students and get them prepared for this new work world that they are heading for as it did to do it," Gassaway said.

Geoffrey White, a 1992 graduate of UNM and former Daily Lobo editor who is currently working with The Associated Press in Chicago, Ill., said he was glad he called Gassaway for some career advice when he was thinking about quitting the agency.

"He said, 'Hang in there another five years, it'll be worth it,' and I'm glad he did because it has been," White said. "The thing about Dr. Bob is that he is thoughtful, ... and he's one of the five smartest people I've ever met or expect to meet.   He's academically impressive with a personal touch, and others just don't rise to that level."

Karolyn Cannata-Winge, a lecturer in UNM's communication and journalism department and fellow Missouri alumna, said she works on a lot of UNM recruiting drives and always tells students to take a class with "Dr. Bob."

"I always tell them, 'He will be tough, I guarantee it, but you will learn so much. And if you feel like your struggling, his door is open and you can go and talk to him,'" Cannata-Winge said. "And that's how I try to be, tough, but fair. You get so much more out of somebody that pushes you to your very best than somebody who just lets you float along."

A veteran of almost 20 years of news reporting before beginning his academic career, Gassaway also brings a host of other experiences to the teaching table, having been a mobile emergency medical technician instructor, certified firefighter and arson investigator.

Dennis Herrick, a lecturer in the communication and journalism department and former newspaper owner, said Gassaway's diverse range of experiences make him a better instructor.

"Most of us get into one field or another and we never branch out of it," Herrick said. "Bob has had a bunch of different perspectives on journalism."

His experiences should prove to be useful in his creative writing projects, as he has already transferred his life experiences into his published academic work since the '70s, from an article titled "Death and the EMT" in the Fall issue of Emergency Medical Services, to a 1998 article in Computing Journal titled "Teaching Young Reporters to Deal With Death." He has also conducted research on such topics as reporting on Vietnam, the necessity of secret sources in the news and the impact of personal computers on the news business.

"Getting computers in the newsroom was an economically significant moment for the news," Gassaway said. "The ability to capture the keystrokes of a writer, and edit them, was a cost-saving innovation in the news."

Gassaway said he has seen a lot of changes in the newsroom in his time.

"When I first started in Waco, we we're still using hot type," Gassaway said. "I remember paying $3,000 in 1982 for one of the first personal computers."

Gassaway said he has seen a lot of industries, not just the news, change in his lifetime.

"I worked on an ambulance the first time I was in college, back in the 'you-maul-'em-we-haul-'em days,' and we got city pay," Gassaway said. "We got $10 to carry you from the scene of an emergency to the hospital, and if you were DOA we got another $7.50 to carry you to the funeral home."

While he has taken plenty of people to the hospital, he has also taken one person from the hospital: Cheryl, his wife.

He met the future Mrs. Gassaway, a nurse, after checking into a Columbia-area hospital to do some undercover reporting.

"I went in seeking treatment for obesity, and she had me on a 400 calorie-a-day diet," Gassaway said. "I lost 32 pounds in two weeks."

After 34 years of marriage, she still looks after him. Gassaway, a type-2 diabetic, has to take a number of drugs, among them Byetta, which is synthesized from Gila monster saliva.

"She's always asking if I've taken my lizard spit," Gassaway said. "I have a wonderful wife and a loving family."

"My three children are kind and gentle people, and they call me one of those 'Waco wackos.' I love the alliteration. Rotten kids," he said.

And while Gassaway may know what he is doing after he retires, his colleagues in UNM's communication and journalism department aren't sure what the department is going to do after Gassaway leaves, especially as it looks to gain accreditation.

"Bob is tenured, so the question is raised, 'Shouldn't we replace him with a tenure track professor?'" Herrick said. "If we don't, maybe they [the members of the accreditation board] will think we're not giving it as much priority or attention all of a sudden.   It's occurred to some people that we might be judged on how we replace Dr. Gassaway."

John Oetzel, chairman of the communication and journalism department, said Gassaway is irreplaceable.

"Only one person has Bob's skill set, and that's Bob," Oetzel said. "We do need to look for someone with the academic and professional experience Bob had."

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