Eric Allen (continued)
Dean Allen died suddenly while working in his front yard on Sunday, March 12, 1944. Sally, his wife of 37 years, had died in April, 1943. At a memorial service held in his honor, Marjorie Major Goodwin, the editor of the campus newspaper in the year Allen died, remembered him this way:
|
He inspired us, shook us up, quarreled with us so we would be obliged to examine our attitudes. He never let us sit in a passive vacuum without responsibility. He treated us as adult citizens with important work to do, vital problems to face, reasoned solutions to discover. |
In his nearly 30 years as dean of the School of Journalism, Eric W. Allen saw the study of journalism grow from a mechanical, skills-oriented practice to a professional experience imbued with the kind of knowledge gained only through a complete education. To a very great extent, he was a leader in this growth.
Eric Allen's philosophy still guides journalism education at Oregon and his spirit is still alive within the walls of Allen Hall. Built in 1954, Allen Hall is a living memorial to the man who is almost single-handedly responsible for the practice of journalism in Oregon. In 1924, only eight years after coming to Oregon to head its new journalism program, Dean Allen wrote in the Journalism Bulletin: |
The actual information a man can possess at graduation is too slight a thing to count. The question is, Has he formed habits that will make of him, years later, a man of sound knowledge, a straight thinker, a representative of the best thoughts of his time, and the companion either directly or through the printed page of the soundest thinkers of his generation.
Eric W. Allen lived and taught according to this philosophy.