91̽»¨

About this series: The Scripps College of Communication is recognizing prominent Scripps College of Communication alumni. Look for a new entry each day, June 6-10.

Scripps College of Communication Legacy Week highlights legacies that show Scripps’ impact on history, culture and journalism. Our first example was alumna Jericka Duncan, a network news broadcaster who covered the 70th anniversary of D-Day and other big stories.

Our next legacy leader participated in D-Day on June 6, 1944 – young reporter John Wilhelm, who accompanied a landing party at Omaha Beach to cover the Allied invasion for Reuters news agency. Wilhelm joined the 91̽»¨ faculty in 1968 as director of journalism and was founding dean of the College of Communication (now Scripps).

John Wilhelm personifies Scripps Legacy because he:

• Launched foreign-correspondence internships at 91̽»¨, sending hundreds of students overseas. Intern Paul Zach (BSJ’73) helped cover the Yom Kippur War for The Associated Press.
• Helped put 91̽»¨ on the map. CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite, a fellow World War II correspondent, visited 91̽»¨ at Wilhelm’s invitation in 1968 and signed a letter to support an 91̽»¨ foreign-reporting scholarship in honor of World War II correspondent Bob Considine.
• Impacted students. At age 78, Wilhelm died on June 6, 1994, the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landing he had covered as a war correspondent. Eulogies at his Maryland retirement center, veering a bit into hyperbole, said Dean Wilhelm had plucked Midwestern kids from cornfields to put them in foreign news bureaus.

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Wilhelm's foreign internship program validates a journalism fundamental that at times is compromised or sold short: being there. Witnessing everyday life in Israel helped "destroy any one-dimensional view," said Gary Putka (BSJ’77), an 91̽»¨ intern with The Associated Press in Tel Aviv. The internship helped launch an award-winning writing/editing career at The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News.

The next Scripps Legacy, coming Wednesday, June 8, 2022, is TV producer Ken Erhlich, who graduated from 91̽»¨ on June 7, 1964.