professional and popular editors the
Oakland Tribune has ever had.
Here's a reason for journalism majors and Sunflower staff writers to take heart: Charles "Chuck" Jackson '68, the editor of the Oakland Tribune, was recently honored in San Francisco when he received the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists' prestigious Career Achievement Award for print. It was no small affair, either. More than 300 people attended the event, and he received a standing ovation.
By the time he graduated from WSU in 1968, Jackson had been the Sunflower's first black editor-in-chief and had also served as editor-in-chief for the now-defunct Parnassus yearbook. After graduating, the Fort Worth, Texas, native worked for a number of newspapers, including The Wichita Eagle, the Dallas Times Herald and the Washington Post before becoming editor, in 1998, of the Tribune.
Jackson has also devoted a great deal of his time to philanthropic causes, namely as director of programs for the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, a non-profit organization designed to encourage diversity in newsrooms across the country.
From the newsroom of the Sunflower to his desk in the center of the newsroom at the Oakland Tribune, Johnson stands as an inspiration to WSU's young journalists. What words of encouragement does he have for them? Well, let's just say he's something of a realist. "Keep at it," he says. "You'll never get rich, so marry well."
