Stuart Wilson Sechriest, former newspaper man, Army officer and associate professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, died at his home in Chapel Hill on Thursday (Oct. 13) after a long illness. He was 97.
Stuart Wilson Sechriest, former newspaper man, Army officer and associate professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, died at his home in Chapel Hill on Thursday (Oct. 13) after a long illness. He was 97.
Sechriest began to teach in what is now the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1946, hired by legendary dean O.J. (Skipper) Coffin. Sechriest taught news editing and photography and was a General College adviser.
“He was an institution in the school and a wonderful character, loving to tell jokes and compose limericks,” said Jan Johnson Yopp, Walter Spearman Professor in the school, dean of the Summer School and a former student of Sechriest’s.
Sechriest brought wire services to the classroom so that students could get experience editing real-life news copy. He also taught the first course in press photography at UNC. After teaching for 32 years, he retired in 1977. A student award in the school bears Sechriest’s name.
“He was widely known for his sense of humor and was much beloved by those who knew him,” said his daughter, Mary Pauline Sechriest of Chapel Hill, a lawyer retired from the University attorney’s staff. “His students have gone on to excel at newspapers around the U.S., and many have entered the field of law.”
She said her father “believed in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.”
Jock Lauterer, a senior lecturer in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, took news editing from Sechriest when he was a student.
“He was a lovable curmudgeon,” Lauterer said, recalling Sechriest’s sometimes gruff delivery paired with a sparkle in his eye. Even when Sechriest once gave Lauterer a piece of his mind about some below-par work Lauterer had turned in, “he was almost laughing as he gave me that tough-love lesson.”
Tom Bowers, a former senior associate dean and professor emeritus in the school, wrote this anecdote his book “Making News: One Hundred Years of Journalism and Mass Communication at Carolina,” which the school published in 2009:
“In 1958, students in the School of Journalism played a softball game, seniors against juniors. Stuart was the umpire, described by The Daily Tar Heel (student newspaper) as smoking a cigar under his protective mask and firing a cap gun at players and spectators.”
Sechriest was born in 1914 in Davidson County near Thomasville to John Franklin and Carrie Fouts Sechriest. He was the last survivor in a family of nine brothers and sisters. He graduated from public schools in Davidson County and UNC-Chapel Hill. He got his first taste of the newspaper business in a class Coffin taught in 1933, his sophomore year at the University.
Sechriest volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Forces in September 1942 while on the staff of the Greensboro Daily News and served during World War II. He was discharged from the Air Force in 1946. In 1948, he was commissioned in the Army Reserves and became a Selective Service officer, working in the National Guard headquarters in Raleigh as a public information officer for the Selective Service in North Carolina. He worked for the National Guard and Army Reserves until his retirement with the rank of colonel in 1974.
“He had a consistent, droll sense of humor that made life brighter for everybody who ever met him,” said John Adams of Chapel Hill, former dean of the school. “And he was a professional from the word go.”
Sechriest was married for more than 50 years to the former Carolyn Frazier Tuck of Virgilina, Va. She died in August 2001. Both were communicants of Chapel of the Cross, an Episcopal parish in Chapel Hill.
Surviving are two daughters, Mary Pauline Sechriest of Chapel Hill and Elizabeth Sechriest Cornella of Boone. Also surviving are his son-in-law, Dr. Rick Cornella and three grandchildren, Scott, Valerie and Kimberly Cornella of Boone.
Funeral services will be on Sunday (Oct. 16) at 3 p.m. at the Chapel of the Cross, 304 East Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. The family will receive friends and family at Walkers Funeral Home (919-942-3861) in Chapel Hill on Saturday (Oct. 15) from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Online condolences can be made at www.walkersfuneralservice.com.
Memorial contributions may be made to the School of Journalism and Mass Communication Foundation of North Carolina, CB 3365, 117 Carroll Hall, UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC 27599-3365.
For a School of Journalism and Mass Communication story on Sechriest, visit http://www.ibiblio.org/jomc/carolinacommunicator/archives/jan2001/sechriest.html.
News Services contact: LJ Toler, (919) 962-8589, (919) 219-6374