James William Tankard Jr., professor emeritus in the School
of Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin, was an intrepid
traveler who combined intellectual avenues of exploration in
the academy with artistic and geographic explorations in numerous
other venues.
Jim was born in Newport News, Virginia, on June 20, 1941, and
died in Austin, Texas, on August 12, 2005, a year after retiring
from thirty-two years on the School of Journalism faculty. From
1989 until his retirement, Jim held the Jesse H. Jones Professorship
in Journalism. Prior to coming to Texas in 1972, he was on the
journalism faculties of Temple University and the University
of Wisconsin - Madison.
During his years in the academy, Jim authored or co-authored
six books and more than forty-five research articles and book
chapters. His six books reflect the breadth of his interests
and contributions:
How To Build Social Science Theories,
Writing
for Print and Digital Media, Mass Media in the Information Age,
The Statistical Pioneers, Basic News Reporting, and
Communcation
Theories: Origins, Methods, Uses. The latter book, which
was co-authored with his UT faculty colleague, Dr. Werner Severin,
has an international reputation, is now in its 5th edition, and
has been translated into six other languages. Jim also advanced
the scholarship of our field as the editor of
Journalism
Monographs from 1988 to 1994.
The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
(AEJMC), the national association of journalism and mass communication
scholars and media professionals to which Jim devoted much of
his professional life, posthumously honored Jim as the 2006 recipient
of the Eleanor Blum Distinguished Service to Research Award.
This award, which was created in 1980 to recognize a person who
has devoted a substantial part of his or her career to promoting
research in mass communication, is so selective that it has only
been given ten times during the past twenty-five years.
AEJMC's board of directors also established the James Tankard
Book Award, an annual book competition, to honor Jim and recognize
books published by AEJMC members. The first Tankard Book Award
winner will be announced in 2007.
For his colleagues in the academy and for his family, the eulogy
delivered by his widow explained that Jim "furnished the
backrooms of our minds -- with ideas and memories and experiences
that will be with us for the rest of our lives." This legacy
was a gift recognized by a Texas Senate Resolution introduced
by one of Jim's former students, Senator Judith Zaffirini.
Jim earned a B.S. in general science from Virginia Polytechnic
Institute in 1963, an M.A. in journalism from the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1965, and a Ph.D. in communication
from Stanford University in 1970. He was a member of Phi Beta
Kappa and Kappa Tau Alpha honorary societies. In the interval
between his graduate degrees, Jim worked for
The Associated
Press in Charlotte, North Carolina, and subsequently for
The
Raleigh Times.
Jim
married Sara Elaine Fuller in 1973, and they are the parents of
three daughters, Amy Elizabeth Tankard Hill, Jessica Hope Tankard,
and Margaret Elaine Tankard. He is survived by his wife and daughters.
<signed>
William Powers Jr., President
The University of Texas at Austin
<signed>
Sue Alexander Greninger, Secretary
The General Faculty
