{"id":970,"date":"2018-08-24T16:15:04","date_gmt":"2018-08-24T20:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jou.ufl.edu\/going-greater\/50-anniversary\/history\/brief-history-2\/"},"modified":"2018-08-24T16:20:25","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T20:20:25","slug":"ralph-lowenstein","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.jou.ufl.edu\/going-greater\/50-anniversary\/history\/ralph-lowenstein\/","title":{"rendered":"40 Years With Ralph Lowenstein"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last year marked the 40th anniversary of Ralph Lowenstein&#8217;s arrival at the College of Journalism and Communications. \u00a0Dr. Lowenstein left an indelible mark on the College, which will celebrate its 50th Anniversary in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>In the summer of 2016, Dean Diane McFarlin sat down with Dr. Lowenstein to reminisce about his experience and many accomplishments. \u00a0The full video and edited clips from that interview are on the right.<\/p>\n<p>Learn more about Dr. Lowenstein in this\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/ufdc.ufl.edu\/UF00006115\/00001\/1j\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interview <\/a>for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program.<\/p>\n<h3>A Brief Biography<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-17992 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jou.ufl.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Ralph-Lowenstein-300x271-300x271.jpg\" alt=\"ralph-lowenstein-300x271\" width=\"300\" height=\"271\" \/><\/h3>\n<p>Dean Emeritus Ralph L. Lowenstein was named the third Dean of the College in 1976 following the retirement of John Paul Jones, Jr.\u00a0 Lowenstein was chairman of the news-editorial program at the University of Missouri prior to coming to UF.<\/p>\n<p>He was one of the first journalism educators to write about the electronic newspaper. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Media-Messages-Men-John-Merrill\/dp\/0582290082\">Media, Messages and Men<\/a>, which he co-authored in 1971 with John C. Merrill, Lowenstein predicted the \u201cpersonal retrieval stage\u201d of mass communication in which any person would be able to retrieve an infinite amount of material of specialized interest from central computers.<\/p>\n<p>Lowenstein earned his bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees from Columbia University and his doctoral degree from the University of Missouri.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18016 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jou.ufl.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Scan-6-246x300.jpg\" alt=\"scan-6\" width=\"246\" height=\"300\" \/>He has received the SPJ Distinguished Award for Research about Journalism and the Columbia Journalism Alumni Distinguished Service Award. In 2011, he received the Emma Lazarus Statue of Liberty Award from the American Jewish Historical Society.\u00a0 The award is the society\u2019s highest honor and is presented to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding leadership and commitment to strengthening the American Jewish community.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>College Accomplishments<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Established WUFT-FM, the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information and the Knight Division for Scholarships, Career Services &amp; Multicultural Affairs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Increased the College\u2019s endowment from $2 million to $12 million.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18008 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jou.ufl.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Scan-2-215x300.jpg\" alt=\"scan-2\" width=\"215\" height=\"300\" \/>Constructed and dedicated the new Flanagan Wing in Weimer Hall, due to Al and Effie Flanagan\u2019s bequeath of $6 million.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The Public Relations Department was accredited.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Launched the doctoral program in mass communication.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Was one of the country\u2019s first colleges to install a large, integrated PC network, made up of some 300 computers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Established the first citywide, continuously updated electronic newspaper in conjunction with the <em>Gainesville Sun<\/em> and the <em>New York Times.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>After retiring, Lowenstein has stayed active in the College and the community.\u00a0 He still regularly walks the halls of Weimer, greeting students and faculty.\u00a0 Regarded as a national visionary for how technology would change the journalism and communications professions, Lowenstein has been an inspiration in the College for more than 35 years.\u00a0 His email is <a href=\"mailto:rlowenst@jou.ufl.edu\">rlowenst@jou.ufl.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jou.ufl.edu\/going-greater\/50-anniversary\/history\/ralph-lowenstein\/\"> Read more <i class=\"fa fa-angle-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":430,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-free-sidebar.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-970","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jou.ufl.edu\/going-greater\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jou.ufl.edu\/going-greater\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jou.ufl.edu\/going-greater\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jou.ufl.edu\/going-greater\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jou.ufl.edu\/going-greater\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=970"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jou.ufl.edu\/going-greater\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":974,"href":"https:\/\/www.jou.ufl.edu\/going-greater\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/970\/revisions\/974"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jou.ufl.edu\/going-greater\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jou.ufl.edu\/going-greater\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jou.ufl.edu\/going-greater\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}