Column Stirs Others’ Memories of Their Campus Days

(Joseph N. Bell’s) column on the journalism school reunion at the University of Missouri (Life, Nov. 4) stirred memories for me too. We must have been there at the same time. I attended from September, 1940, to August, 1941, receiving my BJ during summer school in ’41. (I already had a BA in English and journalism from UC Berkeley.)

I know that you couldn’t cover everything in your column, but I was curious to know whether or not the school still put out the daily town newspaper, the Missourian. It was the very limited experience on that copy desk that helped me get a job at the L.A. Times, where I toiled on various copy desks and as a reporter for the better part of 15 years.

You also did not mention dating the girls from Stephens College and Christian College for Women in Columbia. I still recall taking the date from Stephens back to her residence hall at 10 p.m., then going downtown, buying a quart of buttermilk for a dime (how refreshing!), and taking in the midnight show at the local cinema.

There were a few things about the Missouri J-school that annoyed me at the time. For one thing, they kept two separate lists of graduates and where they were employed--one for Jews and another for other grads. I also recall that a black attempted to enroll in J-school, and rather than admit him, the school opted to send teachers down to Lincoln University in Jefferson City to teach him. How things have changed!

I can in good conscience fault Missouri. Fortunately, I have been gainfully employed in the newspaper and PR business in Southern California for 44 years. In fact, I still work part-time as editor of the Orange County Heritage, directed toward the County’s Jewish citizens.

Needless to say, my wife and I enjoy your column, and more so now that we know about Missouri and you.

Ray Kovitz,

Mission Viejo