For two School legends: -30-

Mal Deans. Photo courtesy Boulder Daily Camera

Two newspaper and World War II veterans who brought the hard-nosed lessons and high-minded ideals of their generation to thousands of CU journalism students died in recent months.

Malcolm "Mal" Deans, 83, died Dec. 29 of pancreatic cancer. Samuel James "Sam" Archibald ('46), 84, died April 7 in Charlotte, N.C., of pneumonia and complications of dementia.

"These were two bright, attractive men from the real world who arrived on our faculty and were of a different mold," said former associate dean and emerita professor Joanne Arnold (MA '65, Ph.D. '71). "Because of their backgrounds and their personal qualities, they really brought an excitement to students and faculty alike and connected this school more closely to the professional world.

"Each was a wonderful journalist and an enchanting person – very different, but enchanting – each in his own way."

Deans was the School's only senior instructor emeritus. He joined the School faculty after 30 years of reporting and editing at newspapers that included stops at the Los Angeles Mirror and the Philadelphia Bulletin. A Dec. 30 obituary in the Rocky Mountain News referred to him as being known "for emphasizing the gritty skills of the craft over academic conjecture."  The School's student-produced newspaper, the Campus Press, dates back to when Deans created it so that CU journalism students would be able to get hands-on experience. He also established a still-existing program that allowed seniors to work at local newspapers.

Deans taught at CU from 1976 to 1987, and for most of that time he was also a part-time copy editor at the Rocky Mountain News. In 1983, the News hired him to be the paper's first ombudsman.

"Mr. Deans was an even-handed critic, not afraid to spank the News for a bad headline, a sexist photograph or unfair language," according to a Dec. 30 obituary in the paper. "At the same time, he beat back readers whose criticism he believed was out of line or unsupported by the facts."

Sam Archibald

In the classroom, Deans worked tirelessly to arm students with the writing, editing and reporting tools necessary to compete for journalism jobs. In return, he expected unfailing accuracy and fairness.

Sue Deans (MA'75), editor of the Daily Camera, met her future husband in the halls of Macky Auditorium. She wrote about him in a Jan. 29 column.

"We had an unusual life together — and an unusual love story. Mal was 26 years older than me. We were married in 1975 when I was 27 and he was 53.

"We fell in love when I was a graduate student at the University of Colorado journalism school and he was spending a year there as a visiting lecturer, on leave from his real job as an assistant managing editor at The Evening Bulletin in Philadelphia."

The couple celebrated their 30th anniversary just before he died.

"Although I was never in any of his classes, Mal taught me most of what I know about journalism. My success in the newspaper business comes from his encouragement and his infectious passion about the news," Deans wrote.

"But more important, I learned from him how to live life."

She told the story of how she resisted Mal Deans' appeals that she and her young son, Jeff, move to Philadelphia with him until one of his letters finally persuaded her to join him.

"I still have the letter. It was a little story about two imaginary sisters, both of whom had opportunities to change their lives.

"One was nervous and reluctant, the other was enthusiastic about the chance for change and adventure. Of course, in Mal's version, the first sister ended up with a boring life and the second lived happily ever after.

"If you don't try it, you'll never know how it would have turned out," he concluded in the letter, his wife wrote.

"All through our three decades together, that letter from the summer of 1975 summarized Mal's approach to life — if you don't try it, you'll never know how it would have turned out," Deans wrote.

"And in the end, it turned out beautifully," she said.

In 1986, when Joanne Arnold was interim dean, she selected Deans to be interim assistant dean.

"While Mal has many qualities to recommend him, the most compelling argument for appointing him to the assistant position is so I can call him Dean Deans. And that clearly sets him apart from anyone else on the faculty," she said.

He left the School in 1987 to follow his wife to Myrtle Beach, S.C., where Sue Deans had been hired as editor of The Sun-News. He taught journalism at Coastal Carolina University. They returned to Colorado in 1999 when Sue Deans became assistant managing editor at the Rocky Mountain News. She was named editor at the Daily Camera in 2003.

Deans is survived by his wife; a daughter, Kathryn Deans-Schaub; and two sons, Timothy Deans of San Diego and Jeffrey Foss of Brighton. A memorial for Deans was held in Koenig Alumni Center on the CU-Boulder campus on Jan. 28.

His family established a memorial fund at the School, with donations going to support the transformation of the Campus Press into a daily, multimedia news operation. Gifts may be directed to:

Malcolm A. Deans Campus Press Memorial Fund
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of Colorado Foundation
4740 Walnut Street
Boulder, CO 80301.

While neither Deans nor Archibald were known for pulling their punches, the former had the ability to deliver them without much bruising.

That wasn't Archibald's style.

The former political reporter and congressional aide who helped craft the landmark Freedom of Information Act of 1966 loudly assailed inadequate information wherever he found it. His former reporting students routinely share stories about receiving an Archibald dressing-down over sloppy copy. But he saved his most caustic criticism for government secrecy and shoddy professional journalists.

"Witty and fun-loving with his friends, Mr. Archibald was an unrelenting critic of government who relished embracing unpopular causes," Rocky Mountain News writer Rachel Brand wrote in an April 19 story after news of Archibald's death reached the paper. "He held his students to high standards. His gift was persistence in search of truth, a trait necessary for investigative reporting and government reform."

During the McCarthy area in Washington, D.C., the concept of freedom of information was a very unpopular cause with federal officials. After 10 years of reporting on politics for The Sacramento Bee, Archibald joined the staff of newly elected Democratic Rep. John Moss of California. Angered by federal bureaucrats' refusals to release names of citizens fired for allegedly being communists, Moss formed a subcommittee that looked into government secrecy and made Archibald staff director.

Archibald is credited with authoring the original one-paragraph draft that stated simply that all government information must be free and available to the public. After numerous exceptions and qualifications were added during an 11-year battle for enactment, during which Archibald served as ramrod, the measure became law in 1966.  

"He loved to be referred to as the father of the Freedom of Information Act," Arnold said.

Archibald, a Denver native, joined the CU journalism faculty in 1975. He remained known throughout the country as an expert in – and champion of – open-records laws. He retired in 1992 but continued to be sought out for commentary on government and news-organization openness.

"To succeed in this calling, you have to have a real love and feeling for the cause, and I think Sam was really responsible for giving a lot of us this calling," said Doug Cosper (MA '83), who now trains journalists internationally. Cosper said that in spite of Archibald's abrasiveness, as a professor, his out-of-the-box approach was inspirational.

When a graduating student aspiring to be a free-lance writer told Archibald that his efforts were hampered because he didn't have a computer, Archibald unplugged his own CU-issued Macintosh and handed it over, Cosper said.

"This is the kind of guy that Sam was," he said. "He was unpredictable."

Survivors include his son, Geoffrey Archibald of Gainesville, Ga., and two daughters, Jann Pahle of Cornelius, N.C., and N. Jill Archibald of Freehold, N.J.

Memorial contributions may be made to: University of Colorado at Boulder, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, 478 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0478.