Passages

Ronald Bettig

Dr. Ronald Bettig, associate professor at Penn State University (PSU), died tragi-cally August 16, 2016. He was 56. Two people have been charged in relation to his murder.

Bettig received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California at San Diego with a double major in communications and political science and a minor in sociology. He went on to earn his doctoral degree from the University of Illinois Institute of Communications Research.

He was a professor in the College of Communications at PSU since 1988 and taught undergraduate and graduate courses on the political economy of communications. Bettig earned the Excellence in Teaching Award from the College of Communications Alumni Society in 1996. He served as the inaugural representative for the college in PSU’s University Faculty Senate from 1996-2000 and 2003-2005.

Bettig wrote two books: Copyrighting Culture: The Political Economy of Intellectual Property and Big Media, Big Money: Cultural Texts and Political Economics, co-authored with Jeanne Lynn Hall. He published a number of book chap-ters and journal articles and presented many conference papers on political economy, intellectual property and media industries.

Bettig was previously married to Jeanne Lynn Hall, who died December 23, 2011. The two divorced shortly before her death.

Frederick Schiff

Frederick Schiff, associate professor at the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication at the University of Houston, died July 29, 2016.

As a professional, he worked as a reporter and foreign correspondent for 10 years in Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and the United States. Dr. Schiff won a major federal grant from the National Science Foundation to study daily newspapers in more than 120 cities.

Most recently, Schiff gained national recognition by winning a Fulbright Fellowship to teach and do research at the prestigious Federal University of Bahia in Salvador, Brazil. He was studying the “hidden” links between the upper classes, oligopoly media corporations, and anti-democratic arrangements in mega-cities around the world.

He created and edited the investigative news website, www.WorldInternetNews.org. Schiff was also the director of the Research Institute for Metro-Urban Communication (RIM-Com) and his research has been published in leading scholarly journals.

Dr. Schiff earned his bachelor’s degree at Reed College, and his master’s and doc-toral degrees in political sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is survived by his wife, Naphaphairin and their son, Thiraphat Phenphichai (“Oat”).

David Klatell

David Klatell, a professor in the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, died August 11, 2016. He was 68.

Klatell joined Columbia University in 1993 and was tasked with redesigning the broadcast curriculum. He ran the broadcast journalism program for many years and taught broadcast news reporting, digital reporting, new business models in journalism, and ethics. Klatell devised and taught a class called “Reinventing TV News,” where students worked with CNN, NowThis and other broadcast and video enterprises on rethinking news formats, delivery systems and business models.

Klatell served as the chairperson of International Programs and coordinated the graduate school’s list of international affiliations and collaborations. He was named acting dean of the Journalism School in 2002 during the search for a new dean, and was named vice dean in 2004 upon the hiring of a new dean. Prior to joining Columbia, Professor Klatell was program director, department chair, and director of the School of Journalism at Boston University. He served there from 1974 to 1993.

He was recognized as an international expert on the development of journalism education programs and training. Klatell advised schools and organizations in over 20 countries, including Kenya, Brazil, India, and Jordan.

Klatell graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in film and Asian stud-ies and went on to become a broadcast journalist. He won awards as an editor and producer of news and public affairs programs for WCBV-TV in Boston and as an independent documentary producer. He worked as a consultant and advised the development of television news organizations in Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and China. He also served as director of international station development for New York Times Television and Video News International. In addition, he was a consul-tant to broadcast media on the U.S. East Coast, including WNET.org, WLIW-TV and NJTV.

Klatell is survived by his wife, Nancy Lauter, two daughters, Jenna and Devon, and three grandchildren.

Allan L. McCutcheon

Allan L. McCutcheon, professor emeritus of statistics and survey research and method-ology at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL), died on May 3, 2016. He was 66.

Born on March 15, 1950, McCutcheon earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Iowa State University in 1972, and received his master’s and doctoral degrees in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1977 and 1982, respectively. He first taught at the University of Delaware from 1982-1996 before his 19-year stint, 1996-2015, at UNL.

He served as founding director of the UNL-Gallup Research Center and was founding chair of UNL’s survey research and methodology program. McCutcheon also helped establish master’s and doctoral programs in survey research and methodology.

In 2012, McCutcheon was among a group of the nation’s leading statisticians and analysts who used exit polls and other voting data to declare the winner in election projections supplied to the Associated Press and major television networks.

He also was part of an Edison Research team that has served as the sole provider of exit poll information for ABC, the Associated Press, CBS, CNN and NBC since 2003.

McCutcheon was active in professional organizations related to public opinion research. That involvement included serving as general secretary for the World Association for Public Opinion Research from 2000 to 2015.

He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Crockett, and daughter, Jennifer Holm, as well as two brothers and a grandson.

Beverly G. Merrick

Beverly G. Merrick, retired professor, died July 31, 2016, in Kearney, Nebraska. She was 71.

Born November 20, 1944, in Troy, Kansas, Merrick was a graduate of Kearney High School. She went on to attain two master’s degrees with honors in journalism and English from Marshall University, as well as a doctoral degree in journalism and mass communications from Ohio University. Merrick spent her career as a professor teach-ing at Ohio University, Georgia Southern University, University of South Dakota, University of Nebraska-Kearney, New Mexico State University, and American University in Dubai.

Dr. Merrick received numerous awards for writing and for poetry over the years. Her varying interests included genealogy, women’s journalism, and horticulture.

She is survived by her three children, John Kevin Childers, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Pamela Wells, Chillicothe, Ohio; and Jessica Gomez, Albuquerque, New Mexico; brothers, Gary and Lester, 11 grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. A memorial celebration of life was held August 4 in Lexington, Nebraska.