high achievers

Mike Foley returns as Reporting teacher

by Nicole Cisneros

Mike Foley back in classroom (Photo by John Freeman)

Mike Foley is one of 20 adjuncts teaching in the College this fall. But he's the only one whose picture hangs in the Alumni of Distinction gallery in Weimer Hall.

Foley began teaching in spring semester 2001 as an instructor in Reporting, sharing lecturing duties with Dr. John Griffith and teaches two labs in the course. This requires a commute from his home in St. Petersburg, but with his fancy-pants Infiniti and an armload of books-on-tape, he's more than up to the commuting task.

Foley, a 1970 honors journalism graduate, was a disciple of esteemed and feared journalism professor H.G. "Buddy" Davis Jr. Foley remembers his first day of classes with Davis, 1971 Pulitzer Prize winner for editorial writing.

"Buddy Davis came in the very first class and locked the door," Foley said. "That was it. You didn't get in if you were late. We were all scared as hell."

Foley took five courses with Davis and says he got an A in every class.

"The funny thing is, is that I can't remember what the fifth class was," Foley said.

The classes that he can remember are reporting, photojournalism, applied journalism and editorial writing.

After graduating from UF, Foley worked at the Evening Independent for four years and then transferred to its sister paper, the St. Petersburg Times, where he stayed for 30 years.

He served stints as managing editor, executive editor and vice president. As editor he hired and groomed a tremendous newsroom staff that won several Pulitzer Prizes. It was rumored that he required newly hired reporters to touch the bust of Elvis in his office to consummate the hiring, but he denies the story-- even though it appeared in the best-selling memoir All Over but the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg. Bragg, fellow Pulitzer winner Thomas French and New York Times executive editor Howell Raines were products of the St. Petersburg Times during the years of Foley's editorial leadership.

Foley owns a small public relations firm now, and is enjoying his first teaching experience at UF after teaching at the University of South Florida.

For more than a decade, Foley has served the department as a member of the Journalism Advisory Council. He frequently lectures at the College and has served as the keynote speaker at the Summer Journalism Institute on the UF campus.

"I knew teaching was hard work, but I didn't realize how hard," Foley said. "It reminds me of my five years as city editor of the Times, and the difficult tasks of leading and correcting while nurturing and supporting."

Although the business of journalism -- and the education of journalists -- has changed much since Foley's days as a student, most things remain constant.

"Except for the technology -- we used typewriters, carbon paper and glue -- this course (Reporting) is roughly the same as when I took it 30 years ago," he said. "I only hope to be as good as the teachers I had then."