Class Notes

Melvin Mencher (Jour), author of the seminal journalism textbook News Reporting and Writing, taught at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism from 1962 to 1990. Now retired, he lives in New York near Columbia University. He recently signed a copy of his textbook with the inscription, “To CU Boulder, where it all began.”

Douglas Looney (Jour) worked as a journalism instructor for the U.S. Department of Defense Information School while serving in the military after graduation. Looney’s award-winning career spans many newspapers and radio stations, most notably Sports Illustrated, where he worked for 21 years as a senior reporter and received recognition for the best magazine sports story. Looney was named one of CU’s Notable Alumni and spent 18 years as chairman of the advisory board for the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Carol Robinson Andrews (Jour) is happily retired and enjoying life with her husband, John. They have two sons and four grandchildren. They traveled through the entire United States and many Canadian provinces in an RV between 1988 and 2021. She continues to write—blogging on their travels since 2006 and writing her life story.

Tim Findley (Jour) joined the Marine Corps after graduating, then embarked on a career as an investigative reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. Findley was known for fiercely covering controversial issues, even at great personal risk. At the Chronicle, he covered the Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island and spent time as a prisoner for a series on Soledad State Prison in California. He discovered the identities of members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, a revolutionary group that kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst. Later he worked as a freelance television producer and a writer for Rolling Stone magazine. Findley wrote until the end, beginning a new article for Range magazine just days before his death in 2010.

Mildred Taylor (MJour) is the author of nine books. Her first, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, won the Newbery Medal in 1977 and recently celebrated its 40th anniversary with the release of a special edition. At CU, Mildred helped create a Black studies program and taught in it for two years. She lives in Boulder.

E. Thomas McClanahan (Jour) is enjoying retirement and working on his second novel. His first novel, Pranked, is available on Amazon.

John Leach (Jour, MA’79) was selected to serve on the CU Alumni Association’s Board of Advisors. His three-year term began June 1, 2022.

For the past 10 football seasons, Phil Caragol (Comm), known to many Folsom Field attendees as “Buffalo Phil,” has run through the stadium on game day with a furry horned buffalo helmet adorned with a mullet and CU beer koozies. He's proud to serve as the Buffs’ positive and friendly superfan and cheerleader. His career as a copywriter and creative director spans four decades at advertising agencies in New York and San Francisco. He and his wife, Susan Blickhahn Caragol (Jour, Psych’75), live in Boulder.

Martin Streim (Comm, MA’79) retired in 2017 after a 35-year career in corporate human resources, during which he focused on organizational and leadership development. Before retiring, he spent several years as the director of ethics and business conduct in his employer’s office of legal counsel. He and his wife, Christie, live in Boulder.

Stephen Mease (Jour) wrote and edited Champlain Valley Fair in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Champlain Valley Exposition, located in Essex Junction, Vermont. Mease is a former newspaper editor, freelance writer, publicist, special events photographer and communications director. Mease is the public affairs manager for Vermont Student Assistance Corp. in Winooski, Vermont, and the owner of Stephen Mease Photography. He was also features editor for the Burlington Free Press for 13 years.

Sara Fischer (Jour, Engl) oversees worldwide production for all Shondaland TV series and manages production for development and special projects at the company. Most recently, Fischer led production on Shondaland’s groundbreaking hit, Bridgerton, the most-watched series debut in Netflix history, as well as Inventing Anna. Fischer splits her time between London and Los Angeles.

Rob Reuteman (MJour) retired in 2020 after 10 years on the journalism faculty at Colorado State University and 26 years as an editor at the Rocky Mountain News. He served as state-region editor, city editor, national editor, business editor and a columnist for 12 years before the paper closed. He also served as the 2010–11 president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

Ray Ring (Jour) retired from a 35-year career in journalism to focus on writing novels. He previously wrote Arizona Kiss, a noir piece about a journalist exposing a corrupt judge. His upcoming, self published novel Montana Reckoning will explore racism in one of the least diverse states.

Well-known sports journalist Rick Reilly (Jour) recently released his 15th book, So Help Me Golf: Why We Love the Game. It includes 80 new stories, some of them about his own life growing up with an alcoholic golfing dad in Boulder. It comes on the heels of his New York Times bestseller, Commander In Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump, which the New Yorker called "amusing and alarming." Reilly, whom USA Today called "the closest thing sportswriting ever had to a rock star," lives in Sedona, Arizona, and Hermosa Beach, California.

Shannon Luthy Lukens (Jour) is the news director for seven radio stations in Northwest Colorado and was recently voted Best Radio Personality in Steamboat Springs. Her photos and news stories frequently end up on the Denver networks. As president of Lukens Mountain Media, she is hired to announce events, sports and any shows in the area that need an emcee, including many of the activities at Steamboat Resort. Lukens was the longtime announcer of CU men’s lacrosse games in Boulder. 

David Plati (Jour) will reach his 40th year working full time at CU on Jan. 9, 2023, all spent in the sports information department. He will be semi-retiring in 2023 to transition into the role of athletic historian for the university.

John Shepphird (Comm) is the senior creative director at FanDuel Group and lives in Hermosa Beach, California. His communication degree led him to a Columbia University master’s degree in screenwriting and directing. Shepphird has directed multiple TV shows and movies, and has written award-winning crime fiction.

Look for Scott Takeda (Jour) on your TV this fall. He is a recurring guest star on a new comedy called Panhandle and recently shot with Catherine Zeta Jones in the new Disney+ series National Treasure. He still appears on General Hospital.

​​Pete Baumgartner (Jour) is the managing editor for Central Asia and the Middle East at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in Prague, Czech Republic. Baumgartner served as a senior correspondent for RFE/RL in Munich, Germany, and Washington before moving to Prague. Before moving to Europe, he was the sports editor of CU Boulder's Campus Press and worked for the Longmont Daily-Times Call and the Rocky Mountain News. He enjoys traveling, skiing and attending European soccer games. He lives outside of Prague with his wife.

Kevin Gammon (Advert) started his career in Chicago at FCB advertising agency as a young creative working on the Coors and Gatorade accounts. He then moved to San Francisco to continue working for FCB as a creative director before working for McCann’s Microsoft team. He started his own agency in 2009. Thirteen years and two college-graduated kids later, he is still running Teak, his small creative agency, in San Francisco.