For 44 years of College Heights Herald alumni, the first thing many think about when recalling memories of their time at the newspaper is “Mr. A.”
No other individual has had as wide an impact on the Herald than Robert “Bob” Adams had on the outlet and its student staff during the course of his career at Western Kentucky University as a professor, adviser of both the Herald and the Talisman, and as director of student publications.
A native of Danville, Illinois, Adams spent the first two years of his college career at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. After these two years, Adams began questioning his future career path and his place at DePauw. It was during this time that his uncle, an agriculture professor at WKU, encouraged Adams to take a tour of the campus in Bowling Green.
This, combined with a summer job at a newspaper, drove his decision to attend WKU.
“I had a summer job at the newspaper when I grew up – it was in the advertising department – but I enjoyed my summer job more than I did any kind of education,” Adams said. “And after two years (at DePauw) I was kind of wavering on what to do, and I think my parents set it up, but he (Adams’ uncle) called and said ‘Why don’t you come to Western?’”
When he arrived on the Hill, one of his first classes was an introduction to journalism class, where “everybody in the class wrote stories for the Herald,” Adams said.
The class, taught by Frances Richards, the first student to serve as editor-in-chief of the Herald and the newspaper’s adviser until 1964, introduced Adams to the Herald and many of the students on its staff. His experience in this class encouraged him to join the staff himself.
At the time, the Herald was what Adams described as a once-weekly “events paper” that primarily covered the daily happenings of campus and had very little editorial page information.
As a student, he served as a news reporter, assistant editor and editor-in-chief of the Herald. Through these roles, Adams said he created connections and friendships that he continues to hold dear today.
“You make friends that you keep for a lifetime,” Adams said.
Adams graduated from WKU with a bachelor’s degree in 1964 and with his master’s degree the following year. After his graduation, Adams worked for a year with the Bowling Green Daily News before being faced with a choice: serving in the Vietnam War or becoming a teacher.
In a decision that changed his life and the lives of thousands of students, Adams decided to teach, returning to WKU as a professor in the English Department, which housed the university’s early journalism classes prior to the creation of its own department.
Adams began advising the Herald in 1968. Under the leadership of David B. Whitaker, who served as director of WKU Student Publications from 1970 to 1987, Adams helped to make the newspaper into something that has lasted – an outlet that covers both campus life and hard news.
“David Whitaker came, he helped evolve the Herald into the publication like it is – sharing opinions and writing good news stories,” Adams said. “And if they were not all positive, they were accurate. And the Herald started to become a real newspaper rather than a campus publication that felt limited in how much opinion people were allowed.”
As the adviser of the Herald, Adams worked closely with students, creating relationships with students that shaped their lives while advising them during the easy times and the hard times alike.
Carla Carlton joined the staff of the Herald in the spring of 1985 as a general beat reporter, covering beats such as the university’s administration and Greek life. As she continued her time at the Herald, Carlton served as managing editor and as editor-in-chief.
Carlton was serving as editor-in-chief in 1988 when WKU President Kern Alexander announced to the Board of Regents his plan to install a faculty editor at the Herald whose job would be to screen the content published by the newspaper.
Carlton, Adams, the Herald staff, the paper’s alumni and many in the WKU community strongly disagreed with Alexander’s decision, believing that it was not the place of the adviser to tell student leaders what to write and publish.
“My philosophy was that we have student editors that work with advisers, but the student editors make the decision,” Adams said.
“Having a faculty editor in charge was not conducive to a student publication,” Adams continued.
Carlton reflected this sentiment, emphasizing how Adams’ teaching style encouraged independent thought and decision making by the Herald’s student leaders.
“I always thought Mr. A was a great adviser because he really didn’t give a lot of advice,” Carlton said. “He sort of left things up to us and wanted us to learn, whether it was our mistakes or whatever.”
While Adams was never involved in editorial decisions, when Alexander sought to install a faculty editor, Carlton and Adams decided to create space between the two to ensure the continued integrity of the news the Herald produced.
“The story became a national story,” Adams said. “The first story, I think, appeared in the Courier Journal, and it was a story announcing that the president had this meeting and this was his plan for the Herald. And the story kept getting bigger and bigger. (…) It became a story that was of interest to anybody who is interested in a free press.”
Ultimately, Alexander chose not to install a faculty editor given the backlash from the WKU campus community, as well as alumni and people across the nation.
Alexander announced his resignation on April 11, 1988, to become a distinguished professor at Virginia Tech. According to the next day’s issue of the Herald “Alexander said none of the controversies during his 2 ½ year term, such as establishing a Glasgow campus and proposing faculty editors for the College Heights Herald and Talisman yearbook, ‘had any influence on my decision’ to leave.”
After the fact, Carlton said her relationship with Adams only became stronger.
“I think if it changed our relationship, it is only that we became closer,” Carlton said. “We felt like we’ve been through some sort of war together, and that we had come out on top.”
Relationships like this that Adams built with students both inside and outside of the newsroom were long-lasting and meaningful to Carlton and to many others.
Kristina Goetz joined the staff of the Herald in the fall of 1994 during her freshman year at WKU, serving in multiple roles at the paper until her graduation in December 1998. She grew close with Adams from the beginning, and his impact on Goetz and her career in journalism upon her graduation was immeasurable.
“He was sort of a father figure to many, and also the guy who could really call you out if you needed to be called out kind of in Mr. A’s own sort of gentle way,” Goetz said. “He had really high standards, he always expected you to meet them and he kindly let you know if you didn’t in a gentle, mentor sort of way, so next time you knew what to do.”
Through his advising style – being hands-on while allowing students to come into their own and independently make decisions – Adams allowed students like Goetz to pursue their creativity and passions while developing their journalism skills.
Chuck Clark was on the Herald staff for his first year at WKU before joining the Talisman staff for the rest of his college career. It was during his two semesters at the Herald in the fall of 1980 and the spring of 1981 that Clark first started to get to know Adams.
However, because he joined the Talisman staff after his first year on the Hill, it was not until after Clark graduated that he began to develop a deeper relationship with Adams.
“I got to know Mr. A much better after I graduated and after I had spent a few years reporting and became an editor and then eventually got into a hiring position,” Clark said. “When I had a job to fill, Mr. A was always the first call I would make.”
Clark continued to grow closer with Adams while staying connected with student publications alumni, chairing the committee that raised funds for the Adams-Whitaker Student Publications Center in the early 2000s and staying connected with alumni.
When Adams announced he would be retiring in 2012, it was Adams who approached Clark about filling his role as director of student publications.
“At first I wasn’t interested in it,” Clark said. “Mr. A, in his Mr. A way, said ‘You might ought to think about this.’”
Clark’s first semester as director of student publications was the fall of 2012, when he stepped into the role his own friend and mentor held for 22 years. While it was intimidating to Clark at first, Adams continued to advise him, staying employed with the university for a year after his retirement to help Clark get settled into the role.
“Mr. A has literally had a positive impact on thousands, so that set a really high bar,” Clark said.
Carrie Pratt, the Herald’s adviser since 2013 and a 1998 WKU grad, spent six semesters on staff at the newspaper. Pratt shared many of the same sentiments as Clark about taking on the role of her own adviser.
“Bob Adams really set the bar very high for advising, and what’s challenging in this job is that you’re constantly compared to the legacy he left,” Pratt said.
Like so many others, Pratt met Adams for the first time in her first semester on Herald staff, which was, for Pratt, at the beginning of her second year on the Hill. Like Carlton, Goetz and Clark, Pratt saw their adviser’s dedication to his students and the Herald as an institution.
“He lived and breathed in that building, in that room,” Pratt said.
“He had the utmost respect of the students,” Pratt continued.
Adams’ dedication was even more impressive to Pratt when she became the Herald’s adviser and began recognizing how much happens behind the scenes for student media advisers. Adams was always in the newsroom until the paper’s production had been completed, oftentimes driving the completed pages to Franklin, Kentucky, to ensure they were printed to be distributed on campus the next day.
“I think from maybe a point of view of a student or somebody that’s not entrenched in a newsroom, the role of an adviser at a glance seems pretty easy, but it’s much harder than anyone thinks,” Pratt said. “And it wasn’t until I took this job that I had such an appreciation for that.”
Just as it was for Clark, the legacy Adams left behind for thousands of students was on the mind of Pratt when she took the job of her Herald adviser.
“I just knew that I could never be Mr. A and I couldn’t even attempt to fill the shoes he filled, so I was going to do it my own way,” Pratt said.
Carlton, Goetz and Clark reflected these sentiments, explaining how much of their Herald memories that Adams continues to be a part of to this day.
“He was the glue that held it all together,” Carlton said.
“For a lot of us, Mr. A is the Herald,” Goetz said. “He is sort of synonymous with the Herald, all that it stands for and all that everyone has accomplished.”
“The guy really is the heart and soul of this program,” Clark said.
As for Adams, he advised because he loved the work, and he credits the success of the Herald not to himself but to the students with whom he worked.
Adams said his students taught him “Most everything I know.”
“Students I worked with were passionate about what they were doing,” Adams continued.
Throughout his career, Adams saw many changes in journalism, but noted one thing remained the same.
“Nothing is the same except the students are still committed to doing the important work, which is informing people of what’s happening on campus,” Adams said.
Adams began his time with the College Heights Herald in 1964 when he first arrived on the Hill as a student, and it never really stopped. Most of his adult life has been spent working with the Herald in one way or another, and when asked what this means to him, Adams responded with one word.
“Everything.”
Editor-in-Chief Price Wilborn can be reached at edwin.wilborn835@topper.wku.edu. Follow him on X @pricewilborn.
This piece is number 3/100 of Herald 100, a project to celebrate a century of the College Heights Herald. To see more from this project, click here.
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