CANDACE & JOHN Bowen

A RELATIONSHIP OF MORE THAN FOUR DECADES BEGINS WITH A JOURNALISM CONVENTION BUS RIDE.

THE YEAR WAS 1982. The place was the JEA/NSPA Chicago convention.

Candace (Perkins) Bowen and John Bowen shared a bus trip to the Bowling Brook Mall for the adviser luncheon.

That bus ride started a relationship that has lasted for more than four decades.

They sat across from each other at the luncheon. They talked about student press rights with Margaret Johnston, who was John’s co-chair of the JEA Student Press Rights Commission.

“We really became friends working on committees, judging contests and socializing with groups at conventions,”

Candace said. “Talking with someone who gets it and understands and can sympathize reinforced our relationship.”

Long-distance dating was a challenge. “We talked about the idea of going back and forth, and that maybe we should try something different and the sooner the better,” John said.

The proposal and engagement came on the way to the 1995 scholastic journalism convention in San Diego.

“We got the ring in an antique store in Texas on the way to the convention,” Candace said. “Then we realized people were going to notice, and John’s son Cory didn’t know. So at the first staff meeting with John’s students, he announced it.

“The response was ‘Well, it’s about time.’” home with John just for me. It was a story — a very personal story about an addiction issue one of her parents had and challenges the family was facing. It was gripping, but, I thought, much too first person and lacking in experts to support what she was saying, so I wasn’t sure how it would be received.”

They married on Nov. 4, 1995.

“The parent of one of John’s students was mayor at the time and married us,” Candace said.

She returned to Washington, D.C., and John to Lakewood. With a friend’s connections at Kent State University, she became director of Kent State’s scholastic journalism program.

Candace coached the student on the story.

“The bulky envelope went back and forth between us quite a few times, and finally she was happy with the result and the article went in the newsmagazine.”

Fast forward to a subsequent national convention and one of Candace’s favorite NSPA memories.

“I was sitting on the stage for the Sunday morning awards when NSPA’s top stories of the year were announced. Rachel’s piece had won NSPA’s Feature Story Category.

“I know tears were streaming down my face. John and I had shared at least a bit of her advising, and look what she had done.”

At Lakewood, John’s students earned numerous NSPA Pacemakers and All American ratings.

Candace said. “John taught in Lakewood, Ohio, and the Ohio teachers adopted me as part of their group when we would all go out on Saturday night at conventions.”

In 1993, Candace moved from Illinois to Washington, D.C., to teach English at Marshall High School, Fairfax, Virginia. It was there she understood there was something special in their friendship.

“We called pretty frequently, and at one point when I had a really bad day, I realized he was who I wanted to talk to,”

“I was able to move to Ohio, but I had to work myself into a job with a real salary,” Candace said. “I taught adjunct until 2006 when Kent received the Knight Chair which was a tenure track position. Twenty years later, I was promoted to full professor.”

Although she loved the job, something was missing.

“When I first moved to Ohio, I suffered kid withdrawal,” Candace said. “My job at Kent State didn’t have any teaching or advising so I volunteered to work with his Lakewood Times kids whenever I could.

“I definitely hit it off with one talented reporter. I coached her on several stories, and one day she sent a bulky envelope

“One of the most important aspects of NSPA is that the critiques and contests provide another view of the publication and a professional study,” John said. “The more the merrier when it comes to constructive input.”

Candace said the conventions and workshops have significant value to student journalism, too.

“It’s a real plus to find someone who gets you and with whom you have a natural synergy,” Candace said. “It’s not surprising you would find them through journalism and NSPA.” n

H.L.

FOR MORE THAN FIVE DECADES, HIS IMPACT ON SCHOLASTIC JOURNALISM IS HUGE — INCLUDING JUDGING 6,400+ PUBLICATIONS.

SHOULD I HAVE MY PUBLICATION critiqued? Should I attend a national convention? Should I take students to a national convention?

Each H.L. Hall answer would be resounding. Ye-es! Ye-es! Ye-es!

Literally, thousaands of advisers and students have been inspired by Hall’s signature, positive cheer because of his presentations at local, state and national conventions. Spanning more than five decades, his influence on scholastic journalism is extensive and a bit of a numbers game.

“I’ve gone to 50 years’ worth of conventions,” said Hall, adviser at Kirkwood High School (Missouri) from 1973-99.

“The first in 1965 was at the Chicago Edgewater Beach Hotel, and I think it was just advisers. Eventually, students were added, and it made a lot of difference in the energy level.”

From 1968-73 the convention was held over Thanksgiving weekend at the Palmer House, in Chicago. Although the date offered good hotel rates, Hall said the timing was problematic.

“A lot of teachers were unhappy about the date because you couldn’t be home for Thanksgiving if you went to the convention,” he said. “I also had a problem getting there on Thanksgiving Day because my high school played a football game every year on that day. I often arrived a day late.”

In 1974 the convention date and location moved to Chicago’s McCormick Inn. That year, the first on-site contests were added to the convention with four newspaper categories — news, features, sports and opinion writing.

Since then, Hall says convention attendance has tripled.

“NSPA and JEA working in partnership to plan the conventions meant responsibilities could be divided more efficiently,” Hall said. “The conventions have grown so much I think it would be almost impossible for one organization to handle everything.

“When I was co-chair the first time St. Louis hosted the JEA convention, we brought all of the audiovisual equipment from my school. There was so much work for the local committee. Now, that’s just not an issue. Because NSPA was not involved with JEA that year, I also handled all the convention registration and the write-off registrations.”

From 1978-80, the two organizations held separate fall conventions.

Hall said the next time the convention was in St. Louis, NSPA and JEA were partners again. “That made the job of the local chairs much easier,” he said.

Hall attended nearly 100 conventions, besides serving as a local convention chair.

When Tom Rolnicki was NSPA’s executive director, Hall revised the organization’s Yearbook Guidebook — a best-practices guide to producing yearbooks.

Besides working with NSPA and JEA on a variety of projects, Hall filled his summers teaching workshops both nationally and internationally. His schedule was so full one summer that his wife, Lea Ann, met him at the airport twice where they exchanged suitcases — she brought fresh clothes, and he left her with a suitcase full of dirty laundry.

Over the years, he has also judged publications from 22 states for NSPA, as well as Quill & Scroll and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

For NSPA specifically, as of July, 2022, Hall has had judged 6,311 publications. He is NSPA’s most prolific judge, and he continues to judge 50-60 yearbooks for NSPA most years.

Hall credits Jeanne Buckeye, NSPA executive director from 1975-78, with starting his judging career, and he credits his judging for turning the program around at Kirkwood High School.

He points to one yearbook in particular that changed his advising career.

“I really felt lucky to be the judge for the Colonel at William Fleming High School in Roanoke, Virginia, in 1976. That was the book with the theme ‘A Lot to Look Back On,’ that I thought had such great copy,” Hall said.

“It turned my thinking around totally about what copy should be like in yearbooks. Anyway, I felt lucky that it was sent to me to evaluate. I gave the book five marks of distinction. Fewer than five books received that award. That was in the days when the top books were 5-star All Americans.

Hall said the quality and focus of publications has changed over the years.

“Photography is probably the most improved because the technology has changed so much, but copy is still an area where improvement is needed,” he said. “Academic coverage often doesn’t tell what happened in the classroom, and sports coverage may not give highlights of the season.

“When we rely primarily on quotes to cover the year, we miss a lot of the details. Staffs need to go beyond the first superficial quote and dig deeper,” he said.

Hall also recommends publication critiques for their educational experience.

“You learn from critiques,” he said. “If the critique is positive, it solidifies what you have been doing, but there is always room for improvement.

“A good critique is a pat on the back, and when suggestions are made, the staff can decide which ones to adopt to make their publication better.” n

Prolific Judge

Arguably, no one has judged more publications than H.L. Hall. During his career he has critiqued 6,342 publications as of October, 2022. And, the number continues to grow. A significant number of the critiques were for NSPA. In June, 2019, he completed his 6,000th critique. The milestone critique was for the 2019 Odyssey, Chantilly High School, Virginia.

Hall In The Hat

“But that is not all,” says the Cat in the Hat. “Oh no. That is not all!” H.L. Hall, JEA president from 1997-2001, adds a lighter moment to a board meeting at the 1998 Seattle convention. “I have always been a fan of Dr. Seuss. I read a lot of his books to my two daughters when they were growing up,” Hall said. “when I was chair of the Yearbook Adviser of the Year contest I wrote a poem for each recipient based on one of his books.”

Chalk Talk

Discussing strategies for photo placement, Tom Rolnicki leads a workshop session in the early 1980s. An award-winning teacher and adviser at both the high school and collegiate levels, Rolnicki was named executive director in 1980.

Convention Partners

Colleagues and friends, Linda Puntney, JEA executive director (1989-2010) and Tom Rolnicki, NSPA executive director (1980-2006), worked closely on convention planning including extensive travel to secure convention sites and for advance meetings with local committees. The directors celebrate NSPA’s 75th anniversary at the 1996 Chicago convention.