A fisherman and a scholar: Dwight Teeter knew how to catch someone’s attention.
On Feb. 27, the former dean of the College of Communication and journalism professor passed away after battling a long illness at the age of 80.
“It’s a very sad day,” Michael Wirth, current dean of the College of Communication and Electronic Media, said on Friday. “Dwight was a great man, a great colleague, a great academic. He was a tremendous teacher.
“It’s a huge loss.”
During his professorship, Teeter’s contribution to the journalism field was great, teaching for more than 50 years at a total of seven different universities, co-authoring several academic texts with scholars young and old, being named a Society of Professional Journalists Distinguished Teacher in 1991 and receiving the College of Communication and Information’s Distinguished Research Award in 2005. Teeter was also regarded as a leading First Amendment scholar in the U.S.
Teeter is most popularly acknowledged as the founding author of the journalism law text “Law of Mass Communications,” which he wrote in 1969 with co-author Professor Harold L. Nelson of the University of Wisconsin. The text, which is used in classrooms at UT as well as universities around the nation, is now in its 13th edition.
The 14th edition is currently being finished as the text celebrates its 46th anniversary in 2015.
Fellow journalism professor, Ed Caudill, who worked with Teeter for more than 25 years, said Teeter would frequently offer to co-author books with budding academics without reservation, always praising their work and experience before his own.
During his long career, Teeter taught six students who would go on to win Pulitzer Prizes.
“He shared so much, whether it was in scholarship or on the trout stream,” Caudill said, referencing Teeter’s love for trout fishing. “When it came to co-authoring with young scholars, he was quick to step up. Of course he was a leading First Amendment scholar in this country, but you never heard him crow about that.”
In December of 2014, Teeter’s health began to deteriorate and he was forced to retire from the university, where he had served as College of Communications Dean from 1991 to 2002. As he prepared for retirement, Teeter chose his colleague, friend and mentee Mike Martinez to take over his journalism law classes.
Martinez said when the news of his passing made its way to Teeter’s students, many expressed their admiration for the late professor.
“Many of them who have come forward have very fond memories of him and his humor,” Martinez said. “It’s a difficult class, there’s no question about that, but he would take the time for anybody who expressed an interest to walk them through stuff and help them understand it.
“He cared about students, he cared about helping them understand and getting them through this thing.”
Martinez and Teeter shared a mutual fondness for barbecue and journalism law that would help develop their intense friendship. When Martinez and his wife renewed their wedding vows a few years ago, it was Teeter who walked Mrs. Martinez down the aisle.
It was on Martinez’s birthday that Teeter checked himself into the hospital for the last time, and Martinez and his wife quickly picked up the role of seeing that he was taken care of and visiting him daily.
Before his health forced him to settle down, Martinez noted that Teeter was constantly traveling all over the globe for months at a time.
Wirth commented that Teeter’s sense of adventure and wonderlust equipt him with countless experiences and remarkable tales.
“He had a million stories,” Wirth said. “He was a masterful storyteller.”
Teeter completed his education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a doctorate in mass communications with specializations in American history and law. He later began his journalism career as a reporter for the Waterloo Daily Courier in Iowa.
Teeter had two sons and a daughter. He and his wife Tish (Letitia), who died in 2009 and who Teeter’s 11th edition of “Law in Mass Communications” is dedicated to, were married more than 50 years.
