Author: Belinda Clarke

Sam H. Saran (BSJ50, MSJ50)

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date February 24, 2021
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As published in the Chicago Sun-Times on Feb. 21, 2021

The world just got a little quieter. Sam H. Saran passed away at the age of 97 on Feb. 1, 2021. He began his career in journalism and remained curious about everything until the very end. He never lost the impulse to report…on everything from family doings, the weather, the logistics of any trip you might be taking, and the market to current events. Most conversations began with, “So what can you tell me today?” “Sam the family man” survived both wife Dena (Chiodras) of 48 years, with whom he had three children, and Thora (nee Clark) who passed away in September. He was loving Father to Don (Margie), Linda (Roy) and Laurie (Angelos), and beloved Papou to grandchildren Thomas, Effie, Marina and Dena.

An only child, he began supporting his parents at the age of 12. He lived in Chicago his entire life, except for 3 ½ years of service in WWII where he was inducted into the U.S. Army Air Force in World War II, and later transferred to serve as a B-29 Bombardier with the 346 th Bomb Group on Okinawa. He separated as a First Lieutenant in 1946. With the G.I. Bill, Sam completed both undergraduate and graduate degrees at Medill in 3 ½ years, while working part-time as a typesetter with the printer who gave him his first job, following graduation from Lane Technical High School in 1941.

A 40-year veteran Chicago broadcast news writer, reporter, commentator at NBC News, Sam began his career as financial news writer-editor. During his 13 years with NBC, he produced news documentaries, and delivered newscasts on local and network programs, specifically for a nightly radio stock market and business report and a weekly television series, “Invest in America”. He also served as reporter-at-large for the WMAQ series, “Night Desk”, and on numerous NBC network news assignments including the national political conventions of 1956 and 1960. In 1959, Sam wrote, produced and directed an hour-long television documentary on the first anniversary of the tragic Our Lady of Angels school fire, “It Must Never Happen Again.”

As a financial broadcaster he was cited as Man of the Year in 1960 by the Stock Brokers’ Associates, and also was cited by the Chicago Federated Advertising Club and the American Bankers Association. Among the dignitaries/celebrities Sam interviewed during his years: Senator John F. Kennedy, (TV City Desk), Maria Callas (News on the Spot), Al Capone, Mayor Richard Daley, Elizabeth Taylor and others… While a public relations executive at Northwestern University, Sam secured two major gifts to the University’s Evanston campus—the O.T. Hogan Biological Sciences Building and Nathaniel Leverone Hall in the Kellogg School of Management—from two CEO guests who appeared on his TV broadcasts.

For 22 years, he served as Director of Corporate Communications/Assistant to the CEO for Inland Steel Industries, Inc. In 1968, he was cited by Institutional Investor magazine, the leading financial analyst publication, for the best industry report for nine consecutive years, a distinction held by only three other companies. By today’s standards, Sam would have been labeled a “foodie”. Having grown up with Greek immigrant family/friend grocery merchants, one of his first jobs was stocking in a grocery store. During the Pandemic, very detailed grocery order lists were dictated and inventoried after picking them up in the car he purchased only a year ago or, later, when being delivered. We could always count on a performance review! Sam was a lover of music and a jazz aficionado, enjoying his Saturday and Sunday lunches to Big Band and other standards from the Greatest Generation era. In later years, he viewed services from Christ Church, Oak Brook, where he was where he was a member for decades. He also had a passion for golf, which he enjoyed throughout his adult life. With this, his last report is filed.

https://legacy.suntimes.com/obituaries/chicagosuntimes/obituary.aspx?n=sam-h-saran&pid=197777796&fhid=6139

2000s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Collin Hansen (BSJ03)

Collin Hansen was promoted in January 2021 to vice president of content and editor in chief of The Gospel Coalition (TGC), one of the largest Christian websites in the world. This year he also published Gospelbound: Living with Resolute Hope in an Anxious Age (Multnomah), written with TGC senior writer Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra (MSJ05).

His Gospelbound podcast in April 2021 featured an interview with Northwestern President Morton Schapiro and Gary Saul Morson, Lawrence B. Dumas Professor of the Arts and Humanities. In January 2022 he will begin teaching cultural apologetics as an adjunct professor at Beeson Divinity School of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.

2000s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

John Eligon (BSJ04)

John Eligon was named Johannesburg Bureau Chief for the New York Times. Eligon had been working as a national correspondent covering race and inequality in the United States.

Eligon joined The Times in 2005 and spent his first two years on Sports before going to Metro, where he helped cover the trial of Brooke Astor’s son and the sexual assault investigation into Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

In 2012, he went to Kansas City to cover the Midwest and arrived in the middle of a drought. When Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014 and the Black Lives Matter movement thrust issues of race and inequity to the front of the national conversation, his beat transitioned from covering the region to covering race in America.

“John is a brilliant and generous colleague who spots good stories everywhere,” said Jia Lynn Yang, the NYT National editor. “He has practically moved to Minneapolis to produce one powerful story after another on the reverberations of George Floyd’s killing. John’s stories are special, and readers of International are in for a real treat.”

Source: NYT announcement

1960s Featured Legacies Featured Legacies Home

Margaret “Margo” Gordon (BSJ61, MSJ62)

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date April 8, 2021
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Alumna and former Medill faculty member Margaret “Margo” Gordon died peacefully on April 1, 2021 in Seattle.

Gordon was born in Dixon, Ill. While in high school, she attended the Medill Cherubs summer program. After graduation from Aurora High School, she was awarded a scholarship to attend Northwestern and would go on to have a lifelong affiliation with the University. She earned undergraduate and master’s degrees from Medill and then a Ph.D. in sociology, also at Northwestern. She later served as a professor at Medill and, from 1980 to 1988, as director of the Center for Urban Affairs.

Between her various degrees, she spent three years in Nsukka, Nigeria with her first husband, Halfdan Johnson. While there, Margo helped students at the University of Nigeria start a student-run newspaper, the “Nsukka Record,” the first of its kind. It is still published today as “The Record,” a major national Nigerian newspaper. She also lived for a year in Aarhus, Denmark and worked as a reporter and editor for the Chattanooga Times and the St. Petersburg Times before returning to Evanston to complete her Ph.D.

In one of her classes, she met Andy Gordon. They married soon after and both went on to spend nearly 20 years as professors and, in Margo’s case, as a university administrator, at Northwestern. During that time, Margo authored or co-authored several books, including the widely acclaimed “The Female Fear” and “The Journalism of Outrage: Investigative Reporting and Agenda Building in America.”

In 1989, Margo and Andy were recruited to the University of Washington. Margo became Dean of the Graduate School of Public Affairs (now known as the Evans School), which she directed until she retired. She was inducted into the Medill Hall of Achievement inaugural class in 1997.

Margo will be remembered for bringing out the best in people and figuring out how to support them as a friend, professor, university administrator, dean or family member.

“She left no doubt with her friends and family how much she cared about them and was always her authentic caring self,” says Andy. “Margo really did have a twinkle in her eye and an enthusiasm that was infectious. She was also tenacious and fought fiercely on behalf of journalistic values, including at the Center, where an interdisciplinary team she pulled together co-authored a book on investigative reporting,” he adds.

“From the time of my recruitment until Margo left Northwestern, she was a mentor, colleague, co-author and role model for me,” says Medill Emeritus Professor Donna Leff. “She brought me in to the Center for Urban Affairs and led a communications research group there that produced coauthored work in journalism and policy—media influence in setting social and policy agendas. Margo’s seminal early work identified the connection between media coverage of rape and the way victims of sexual violence were treated by the criminal justice system and by society more generally.” Leff adds, “Her husband Andy is right—everyone liked the always smiling Margo.”

Medill Associate Professor Emeritus George Harmon was on the full-time faculty with Gordon from 1980 to when she left for Washington. “Anyone who met Margo knew instantly that hers was an incisive and inquisitive mind, interested in nearly everything,” Harmon says. “She was a delightful, supportive colleague on the faculty. Perhaps best of all, she was constantly cheerful.”

Medill Professor Jack Doppelt marvels that Margo and Andy lived inspiring lives – “companion scholars in related fields, both revered on campus, who left indelible impressions; Margo with her uplifting nature, Andy with his robust laugh.”

Margo is survived by her husband Andy, children Sarah (Scott) and Seth (Bootsy), brother Joe (Barbara), grandchildren Carenna and Drake, and many wonderful friends and family members. Her family is grateful that they were able to be with her in her final days despite COVID-19.

2010s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Summer Nettles (MSJ13)

Summer Nettles is producing and directing a six-episode docuseries entitled “She Quit” that will air on Rocky Mountain PBS. The series focuses on the exit of Black women from the traditional workforce due to its negative impact on their health, financial and emotional wellbeing. Nettles hopes to complete the series by September of 2021. She’s currently seeking donors and sponsors to help bring these stories to life. To learn more about the series, share a story or donate reach out to her at Summer@GreaterPurposeMedia.com.

Books

The School I Deserve

Jo Napolitano (BSJ98) “The School I Deserve,” (Beacon Press, April 20, 2021), follows six young refugees as they fight for the right to attend public school in the swing state of Pennsylvania just weeks before Trump’s election. The ACLU and Education Law Center brought the case before a conservative Republican judge whose ruling would leave them breathless. The students are unforgettable, including 18-year-old Khadidja Issa, who lived in a refugee camp for 12 years before coming to America in 2015. Khadidja arrived to the States penniless with just a sixth grade education. The school district bet against her — having no idea what this child would do for a chance at a better life. No longer on the run, she was finally prepared to fight.

2010s Featured Legacies Legacies

Abhinanda Datta (MSJ18)

Reprinted from Patch.com. Byline: Eric DeGrechie, Patch Staff

Abhinanda Datta died unexpectedly Wednesday, March 17, 2021, in Evanston. She was 28.

Datta is survived by her parents, Amitabha and Sahana, of Kolkata, West Bengal (India); her beloved dog, Muffin; elder sister, Aanandita, of Mumbai, Maharashtra (India); and her brother-in-law, Pranay Rao.

Datta was born and raised in India. Her grandfather, Dr. Amaresh Datta, was an eminent Shakespearean scholar and Abhinanda took after him with a great interest in English literature, according to her family. The elder Datta died last August at the age of 101, and a state funeral was held in his honor.

“Writing has always been a passion, but when I learned about the abuse women my age faced, I decided to forego fictional stories to write about those who needed to be heard,” Abhinanda Datta once wrote. “That is how at the age of 14 I decided that I would dedicate my life to making a difference.”

Even before graduating from high school, Datta started having her work published. She reported on topics like the abuse of women, yoga and India’s 60th year of independence, while also critiquing books, films and music for The Telegraph in Schools, the largest student-run newspaper in East India.

“She had a natural gift of the gab, and had an excellent command over her English. This helped her to be a meticulous editor,” said Biswanath Dasgupta, editor-in-charge, The Telegraph In Schools. “An excellent artist, she blossomed on the pages of her paper TTIS with beautiful illustrations/doodles for poems short stories and cover stories.”

Datta received a high school degree from Our Lady Queen of the Missions in 2011, where she studied English, history, political science and economics. She was also involved with the drama team, school band and editorial board at the school in Kolkata.

At Jadavpur University in Kolkata, she earned a bachelor’s degree in English Literature in 2014 and a master’s degree in English Literature two years later. After graduation, she was a retainer for the books page of The Telegraph where she wrote stories on books and authors.

In 2017, Datta was a journalism resident for Cape Argus in Cape Town, South Africa.

After Medill, she began working for 22nd Century Media and eventually became an editor for the media company that was formerly based out of the suburbs of Chicago. Datta worked there until the company folded in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Datta’s work has also appeared in The Huffington Post, Medill News Service, Medill Justice Project and Chicago Magazine.

After the closure of 22nd Century Media, Datta became a field editor for Patch, a national media company based out of New York City. At the time of her death, she was covering the Illinois communities of Plainfield, Oswego, Bolingbrook and Romeoville for Patch.

“Abhinanda joined Patch in the early days of the pandemic, a strange time for us all, but she dove right in without missing a beat, covering the chaos of the early days of COVID-19,” said Shannon Antinori, regional manager and Abhinanda’s manager at Patch.

During her time at Patch, Datta received much recognition for her work, which included reporting on countless bars and restaurants trying to survive during the pandemic, animal rescue, important community fundraisers and corruption in government.

Datta, who was also an artist, said about this piece created earlier this month, “Couldn’t throw away these lovely flowers I received a few weeks ago. So, I turned them into art.” (Courtesy of the Datta Family)

“I have a yearly book challenge, so I read. My goal for this year is 100 Abhinanda’s sister, Aanandita, said she modeled while in college.

“Most people will remember her for her love for animals, her artwork, her fierce passion for causes,” Aanandita Datta and Pranay Rao said in an email to Patch. “She obviously loved writing. In books, horror, fantasy and romance were her favorite genres. Stephen King and Virginia Woolf were among her favorite authors. We also connected on our angst with George R. Martin not writing the next ‘Game of Thrones’ book.”

A company-wide virtual memorial service was held for Datta at Patch on March 18. Her reporting and artwork were featured as her colleagues and management reflected on her time with the company.

“I was just absolutely blown away by her skills and how she put them to use at Patch,” said Lauren Traut, managing editor at Patch. “She will be greatly missed. She was such a bright spot.”

A funeral service was held March 19 at Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago. The service was broadcast live via Zoom for family members and friends unable to attend.

Datta was cremated after the funeral, according to family. Her ashes will be sent to India in the future for a puja, a worship ritual performed by Hindus.

Datta’s family said she leaves behind some books and “loads of artwork” as her main possessions. They are looking to donate her books to a charity and her money to an animal welfare group in the near future.

Photo courtesy of the Datta family.

1950s Featured Legacies Featured Legacies Home Legacies

Medill remembers Bob Mulholland (BSJ55, MSJ56), former NBC president and Medill faculty member

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date March 10, 2021
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Robert “Bob” Mulholland, Medill alumnus and former Medill professor and broadcast chair, died peacefully March 9 in Naples, Florida. He was 87.

Mulholland received his bachelor’s degree at Medill in 1955 and his master’s in 1956. After serving for two years in the U.S. Army in Korea, his career was spent in broadcasting, most of it with NBC. He joined NBC in 1961 as a news writer in the network’s Chicago station, WMAQ-TV. Twenty years later, he was named president and chief operating officer of the entire company. In the intervening years, Mulholland worked in the NBC News London bureau; was the Washington producer for the well-known “Huntley-Brinkley Report;” was director of news for KNBC, the NBC-owned station in Los Angeles; was executive producer of the “NBC Nightly News with John Chancellor;” and was executive vice president of NBC News.

“Bob’s contributions to Medill are still seen today through our outstanding broadcast journalism program,” said Medill Dean Charles Whitaker. “His legacy lives through all the students who use his lessons to share some of today’s most important stories. We will forever be thankful for his talent and tenacity, and grateful that he chose to share it with Medill.”

Mulholland was named president of the NBC network in 1976, and in 1981, he was promoted to president and chief operating officer, assuming additional responsibility for the company’s five owned television stations, as well as the news, sports and radio divisions. He left NBC in 1984.

Mulholland returned to his alma mater in 1988, where he is credited with revamping and revitalizing Medill’s broadcast program.

David Nelson, associate professor emeritus and Mulholland’s colleague and friend, recalled, “A grin that welcomed you as a friend. A heart open to all. A commitment to journalistic accuracy and fairness. And an exceptional intellect sprinkled with curiosity. Bob Mulholland was special. Really special.

“I got to know him for 50 years, he admirably remained the same person – in the board room, in the classroom, on the golf course or tennis court. And, oh, did I mention his sense of humor? About 20 years ago Bob and I helped Dillon Smith drive his antique Bentley from Chicago to Naples. I drove. Dillon directed. Bob sat in the luxurious back with teak table down, food and beverages at the ready. Several times cars and even trucks would slow down to see who was in this Rolls Royce. Dillon would say: ‘Bob, another one’s coming up on the left and looking.’ Bob would grab the Grey Poupon mustard jar from the table, hold it out the window and flash that smile that could stretch from New York to Los Angeles. We played like high school kids all the way to Florida.”

While at Medill, Mulholland was named in the 1952 and 1953 Syllabus yearbooks as one of the top members of the varsity rifle team. At the time, he chose a letter blanket instead of a jacket, but upon returning to Medill to teach, he decided he would like a jacket.

“How many faculty members have an NU letter jacket?” he told the Daily in September of 1989, adding, “Now I can’t wait for the cold.”

That same year, Mulholland spearheaded the expansion of Medill’s quarter-long externship program, then called Teaching Newspaper, to include television stations. He was adamant that the students have a chance to do real broadcast work, telling the Daily Northwestern, “I would like them to go to smaller stations where they will do everything. I don’t want them to go into Chicago where they’ll just stand and watch.” The first five students were placed into television stations in the fall quarter of 1990.

It was also during Mulholland’s tenure that a new studio building was constructed in partnership with the School of Speech, now School of Communication. The building, John J. Louis Hall, opened in the fall of 1991 and featured a state-of-the-art broadcast studio for Medill students, complete with fold-out bleachers so students could watch the productions and carrels for the student reporters to write their stories.

“Bob and I have been friends from the time we met at Medill in 1956,” said friend and MSJ classmate Al Borcover. “From the outset, he was a friendly, professional, humble, funny guy. He was a great scrounger. Shortly after he joined the Medill faculty, I recall that he was able to get a satellite dish (I believe from WGN) to provide live feeds for his students, and an anchor desk that was being discarded by Channel 5. Bob was always a hands-on guy. He was a pro at Medill, WGN, NBC and throughout his life.”

In the spring of 1992, Mulholland spoke to a group of Northwestern students in the Communications Residential College. His talk, “Television in the year 2000,” covered five decades of TV history and included some prophetic forecasts for the future. Accurately, he predicted that fiber-optic cable would create thousands of available channels and total viewer control. “New technology may also allow viewers to ‘punch up’ any program they want, at any time of the day, for a fee,” Mulholland told the students.

Medill Professor Emeritus Donna Leff headed the search committee for Mulholland’s replacement. “Bob Mulholland was a consummate broadcast professional who brought distinction, honor and considerable joy to Medill,” Leff said. “Although famous, and truly accomplished at the highest levels of network television when network television was the industry’s gold standard, Bob was a dedicated, accessible and beloved teacher.”

He retired from Medill in 1993 and was inducted into the Medill Hall of Achievement’s inaugural class in 1997.

Mulholland is survived by his wife, Judith, of Naples, Florida, daughter, Leslie (Leigh) Anderson (Chris) of Amherst, New Hampshire, son, Todd Mulholland (Licet) of Naples, Florida and stepsons, Michael Holleran of Warrenton, Virginia and Matthew Holleran of Menlo Park and San Francisco, Calif. and seven grandchildren.

Mulholland met Judith while he was working at Medill after NBC. Shortly after, they both retired and moved to Naples, Florida.

About their joint retirement, Judith said, “We took up golf, something neither of us had tried before, and Bob discovered gardening. He loved working in the yard. He enjoyed creating beds of plants, many of which he shared with others and others shared with him. On March 23, we will have been married 30 years.”

About his distinguished career, Judith said, “Bob had an exciting career at NBC, eventually becoming President. During his years there, he helped launch the careers of Tom Brokaw, Bryant Gumbel and Tom Snyder. He negotiated Johnny Carson’s contract in Johnny’s kitchen after one difficult season, just the two of them.”

Photo: Mulholland on the roof of Kresge Hall with new studio building in the background. Undated photo courtesy of the NU Archives.

Features Home Medill News

Northwestern News Network Launches New Morning Show Format

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date March 8, 2021
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Despite the COVID-19 lockdown, the Northwestern News Network (NNN) has continued to produce its top-quality newscasts remotely without a studio. For the first time in its 28-year history, the students created a 90-minute NNN AM news show that mirrors the network morning news programs like “The Today Show” and “Good Morning America.” For the last two weeks the NNN team, working from campus and from their homes around the country and the world, produced stories tackling the serious issues confronting students along with features that demonstrate how campus can joyfully go on.

“NNN AM is serious and refreshing at the same time,” says Associate Professor Larry Stuelpnagel, who serves as faculty adviser for NNN. “The program embodies the best of the skills and values Medill instills in its journalists.”

In this first NNN AM production, the students talk to Asian students at NU about the assaults on Asians around the country and their own fears on the campus. All of the stories and segments are professionally produced and executed, concluding with a report about Medill’s centennial and an interview with Dean Charles Whitaker.

View the 90 minute program: https://fb.watch/44GJI3qp0H/

1990s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Gina Gibbs Foster (BSJ95)

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date March 5, 2021
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Gina Gibbs Foster has been named Vice President of Corporate Communications for Staples, headquartered in Framingham, Mass. In this role, Gina is responsible for leading the public relations strategy for the company’s external and internal stakeholders. In addition to serving as a key adviser to the CEO and Senior Leadership Team of Staples, Gina provides oversight for all aspects of media relations, issues and crisis management, employee communications, financial communications, corporate reputation and branding. Prior to joining Staples, Gina progressed through a series of Public Affairs and Corporate Communications management roles of increasing responsibility at The Dow Chemical Company, Linde plc, and Messer Americas. She earned a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and Administration from Northwestern University in 2014.

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