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SPECIAL REPORT
Lowell Vann Marione Nance Martha Ralls Dennis Jones
Don Rankin Paul Richardson Ken Kirby Susan Sheffield
write enough poetry to at last fill a small volume.” Around her there
are “trees, green grass, waving brown grass, a sometimes pond when
it rains a lot, sunlight slanting through oak trees, a brown barn with
white trim, deer and other wildlife that come visiting nightly, and
azaleas and other flowering trees and shrubs that I have planted over
the years.”
In short, said Ralls, “It is my haven.”
Dennis Jones • Journalism and Mass Communication
Journalism and mass communication professor Dennis Jones
has taught at Samford for 23 years and in higher education for 42.
What will he miss as he heads into retirement? “I get to hang out
with college kids every day,” he said. “Who in their right mind
wouldn’t miss that?”
Jones said two things stand out as highlights—starting Exodus
magazine and his department’s Monday Morning Memo. Exodus
started 17 years ago as a senior print practicum project. Students do
everything to produce the publi cation: writing, photography,
layouts, advertising. “Over the years, 230 JMC majors have toiled
on Exodus,” said Jones. JMC’s Monday Morning Memo began in
2010. Each Memo highlights a graduate, and it goes to the JMC
alumni mailing list.
The professor tells his students they are in the middle of a
revolution, with daily newspapers dying, magazines lasting only a
year before they become web-based publications, the big four
networks struggling and information being Googleable in milliseconds.
“There are no more deadlines since everything is distributed
24/7, cell phones are now body parts we rarely turn off, we
carry our work with us 18 hours a day on laptops, iPads and
iPhones.” Jones said he’s looking forward to sitting back and
watching what happens next.
He laments the death of the printed newspaper because it
traditionally served as a watchdog for society. “There will never be
another president taken down by a scandal like Watergate,” he said.
“Today’s media cannot afford to do the legwork, the distribution,
the investigation, the weeks and sometimes months of research. . . .”
Will something replace this? “I hope so,” he said. “I’m trying
really hard to make all my young students aware of the problem.
They are our only hope.”
Don Rankin • Art
Art professor Don Rankin is retiring from the Samford art
faculty, but not from his profession of painting. If anything, his
painting will increase. “My plans are already in motion,” said
Rankin. “I will be back to painting full-time while I overhaul my
studio and catalog all old and new paintings.”
Rankin will continue his website, donrankinwatercolorstudio.
com, and publish Mastering Glazing Techniques in Watercolor,
Volume II. Volume I of the same title recently was reissued, for
which he was recognized by the Provost’s Office for outstanding
scholarship in his field. He is also helping to organize a national
traveling exhibition of his paintings of some of his Shawnee relatives
(10 paintings currently) that will be part of a larger exhibition on
Piqua Shawnee.
“I’m looking forward to renewing the freedom of long walks
and even longer sketching/painting sessions around the neighborhood,”
he said. “I’m excited about re-establishing old ties with art
dealers and galleries. My wife, Geneal, and I will continue to do our
mission work with Christians Place Mission in Nauvoo, Ala.”
At the same time, Rankin said he would miss interaction with
his students. “I am especially delighted when a struggling student
has an ah-ha moment and begins to demonstrate a grasp of the
subject being taught.” Rankin has taught at Samford for 23 years
and is a 1970 graduate.
www.samford.edu • 19