Samford University’s Department
of Journalism and Mass communication will induct three members into its
new Wall of Fame during Homecoming weekend activity Saturday, Nov. 7.
Inaugural inductees are Samford
journalism professor Jon Clemmensen, newspaper journalist Carol
Nunnelley and book publisher Randall Williams.
The Wall of Fame was created to
recognize people who have “made exceptional contributions to the
department or to the field of journalism and mass communication,”
according to JMC department chair Dr. Bernie Ankney.
The induction ceremony will be
at 11:15 a.m. in Samford’s Beeson University Center. The event will
also celebrate the 25th anniversary of the re-establishment of the journalism curriculum as a department. The
public is invited.
Clemmensen joined the Samford
faculty in 1985 to re-establish a journalism program that had been
dormant for a decade. He served as department chair for 12 years. He
previously taught at the University of Florida and was statewide
director of the Florida Scholastic Press Association. He lives in
Birmingham.
Nunnelley, projects director for
Associated Press Managing Editors, leads NewsTrain, a training program
for editors that has worked with more than 4,000 journalists across the
country. It most recently developed a national online journalism
credibility project. She formerly led the National Credibility
Roundtables Project, was managing editor of
The Birmingham News, and co-chaired the Alabama Center for Open Government. A resident of Birmingham, she is a 1965 Samford graduate.
Williams, a writer, editor,
publication designer and book publisher, is editor-in-chief of New
South Books, Inc. A former reporter, editor and publisher of daily and
weekly newspapers, he also worked at Southern Poverty Law Center, where
he produced publications and investigated cases of racism. Williams,
who lives in Montgomery, Ala., was a Samford student in the 1970s, and
editor of the school newspaper,
The Crimson. A conflict over the definition of news cost him his scholarship his senior year.
The honorees were nominated by
the JMC faculty and voted on by the department’s advisory council,
which includes alumni, faculty, students and area media professionals.