What a refreshing memory, The North Texan’s photo of Barbara Colegrove. She was a remarkable young professor with some radical teaching techniques. In the mid ’60s, I was in her History of Journalism class. I had a red goatee and a slightly radical look.

Toward the end of the semester, she asked me to show up at her news-writing class while she was lecturing. I was to barge in the door, berate her, threaten her and then leave. Outside, my roommate had agreed to fire off blanks in a pistol. Then, we disappeared.

Professor Colegrove’s class must have been stunned. She then asked them to write an accurate description of what they had just seen. The results were hilarious: I had a black beard, I had only a moustache, I had no facial hair at all, I was over six feet tall, I was about five feet. It went on and on.

I don’t know what the students learned that day, but I learned that most people aren’t very observant and that the world is not always the way others describe it. I have recounted this story many times to my own news-­writing and feature-writing students, hoping for some accuracy.

Professor Colegrove was an exciting professor; she was lively, with stories of her experience at Time, and she was open to the ideas of students. Thanks for updating us on her life.

Professor Clay Randolph (’67 M.A.)
Oklahoma City Community College