Memorial gift honors newspaper editor Bruce Yoder

Bruce Goins Yoder ('73) loved journalism – sports journalism in particular – and his excitement about sports photography inspired a recent gift to the School in his memory. Donors purchased a lens for the SJMC's growing inventory of digital-camera equipment, one needed for covering CU sports events. The gift and recognition of Yoder at the School's April Scholarship Banquet honored the memory of the journalist who died in 2000.

A Wyoming native, Yoder moved with his family to Rocky Ford in 1965. There he was active in student journalism and also became a part-time reporter for the Rocky Ford Daily Gazette during his junior and senior years of high school. It was in Rocky Ford that his formal journalism education began under the mentoring of Ross Thompson, who co-published the Gazette with his wife, Anne.

Sports was Yoder's passion, and he covered all the angles, including photography, for the Gazette, his Rocky Ford High School student paper, the Meloneer News, and Le Cantaloupe, the high school yearbook. Yoder graduated from high school in 1968, enrolling at Otero Junior College. He transferred to CU and graduated from the School in 1973.

Yoder started as a reporter at the Daily Hub in Kearney, Neb., and continued from there to Junction City, Kan., Columbia, Mo., and then to Hot Springs, Ark., where he was news editor.

After his time in Arkansas, he became an editor at the Rock Springs, Wyo., Rocket-Miner, a daily.

At the time of his death, he had been in Rock Springs for 20 years and was serving as night editor, with primary responsibility for the final form and shape of each morning's paper.

In addition to honors from both the Wyoming and Nebraska Press associations, Yoder was recognized by The Associated Press for his commentaries and for his photography.

Contributions to this memorial gift can be made through William Madonna ('73), the Rocky Ford Daily Gazette, Professor Stewart M. Hoover and Carl McClure, Rocky Ford High School journalism teacher.