A little about our school's name

Walter Cronkite (center) talks with Christopher Callahan, dean of Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, at the February 2007 groundbreaking for the school's building in downtown Phoenix. The facility opened 18 months later. (Photo by ASU News)

Sometimes a name on a school isn't anything more than that. In the case of Walter Cronkite, whose name graces your home for the next two weeks, the relationship involved much more.

Participants in the 2013 Reynolds

High School Journalism

Institute introduce themselves at 

Sunday's opening dinner.

From the day in 1984 when ASU named this school after Cronkite until shortly before his death in 2009, the legendary CBS anchorman made frequent visits here to visit with students and faculty and, once a year, to present the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism.

I had a chance to meet Cronkite twice as the Associated Press bureau chief for Arizona because I served on the school's endowment board. After I joined the school in 2006 to launch Cronkite News Service, I had the thrill of sitting next to Cronkite at a breakfast with faculty. He was quick to remind me that he was a longtime reporter, editor and war correspondent for United Press International, AP's longtime rival. His hearing wasn't very good at that point, but we shared stories about the joys and pains of wire service work. I won't forget that, as I won't ever stop displaying the letter, now framed in my office, in which Cronkite welcomed me to the faculty.

Just giving his name launched the Cronkite School on a trajectory that placed it among the nation's best journalism programs. But Cronkite did much more than that. I can tell you from experience that his commitment to getting the story right, holding the powerful accountable and adhering to the ethics of journalism continues to inspire the faculty and students here. I remember it daily as I run a news service that carries Cronkite's name. I hope it inspires you as well during your time with us.

If you haven't already, I hope you'll spend some time in the second-floor gallery that displays items from Cronkite's office at CBS. How did we come to have those? Our dean asked, and Cronkite said we  could go through the office and take anything we wanted. It's just another way Cronkite and his legacy have enriched this school.

Steve Elliott
Arizona State University
Phoenix