My father, Laurence R. Campbell (1903-1987), was a long-time journalism educator and author who focused on student publications and the training of publications advisers. In 1984, the Scholastic Journalism Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) honored him by establishing the Laurence R. Campbell Research Award.

The annual award recognizes scholarship in the field of journalism research. Now, the AEJMC hopes to further support the award by increasing the level of its funding to the point where it can be endowed. This would ensure the award’s long-term continuation.

Writing in the March issue of Scholastic Source, division director Vanessa Shelton appealed to AEJMC members to add the research award to their list of charitable donations for the year.

“Mr. High School Journalism, as Campbell was called, left an amazing legacy of information generated through his prolific writing and research agenda,” said Shelton. This included 32 articles for Quill & Scroll Magazine, 50 research projects, 200 articles for student journalists, and over eleven journalism textbooks and pamphlets.

As Shelton noted, Campbell “also judged thousands of newspapers and yearbooks for scholastic press associations influencing (as author Bruce Konkle said) ‘the quality of student publications for more than 25 years.'”

I hope the AEJMC members and others who support high school journalism courses and student publications will help raise the award’s funding to the endowment level.

Donations earmarked for the Laurence R. Campbell Research Award can be sent to Vanessa Shelton, Quill and Scroll, University of Iowa, E346 Adler Building, Iowa City, IA 52242. Checks should be made payable to the AEJMC with a notation for the Campbell Award fund.