Obituaries

Bob Palmer
Colorado's best known television newsman, Bob Palmer (‘60), died Aug. 20 in Denver. Palmer retired in 1992 from the 10 p.m. KCNC-Channel 4 newscast after 29 consecutive years on Denver television. He also taught broadcast classes at the SJMC and served on its Advisory Board. In 2006 he was inducted into the Broadcast Professionals of Colorado's Hall of Fame. He was 77.

"Bob was a generous friend and supporter of the school for five decades," said Paul Voakes, SJMC dean. "But I think the scholarship was his favorite experience. He got to know the recipient of the Palmer scholarship each year, and he would follow their careers for years. Bob and his late wife Gloria (also a former CU student) gave so much to the school and were so grateful they could make higher education possible for so many journalism and mass communication students." The Palmer Scholarship is the School of Journalism's largest endowed scholarship.

Palmer, a fourth-generation Coloradan, began his career in broadcasting while still a CU student, working as a copywriter for Denver radio station KOA. He also worked at KOA's TV station in Denver, where he learned to shoot and edit film. Palmer graduated after taking time out from his journalism studies to serve four years in the Navy. In 1963, he became TV anchor at KOA, then joined KMGH-Channel 7 in 1968, where he was anchor for 14 years.

"If you grew up in Colorado from the 1960s through the mid-1990s, you watched Bob Palmer," said CU spokesman and director of media relations Bronson Hilliard. "He was the Walter Cronkite of Denver television – a pioneer broadcast journalist whose delivery was unmatchable and whose integrity was unassailable."

Connie White
Connie White, a generous friend to the School, died June 3 at the age of 95. White was a foreign correspondent and co-owner of a public relations firm with her husband, William W. White. She gave annual gifts to outstanding SJMC graduates in honor of her late husband, class of 1933. Recently she gave the school a gift that provides two $5,000 faculty awards each year.