Former J-School Professor Ralph Holsinger Dies At 86

Published: January 27, 2005

Ralph Holsinger, 24-year J-School professor and member of the Indiana Journalism Hall of fame, died Dec. 8, 2004, at Brooke Grove Nursing Home in Sandy Spring, Md. He was 86.

In 1965, Holsinger joined the J-School staff to teach reporting and editing. Four years later, he began teaching the J-School's first course in journalism ethics. Holsinger also authored the college-level textbook, Media Law. The book's third and fourth editions were co-authored by current J-School professor Jon Dilts, who happened to be one of Holsinger's former J-School students. Dilts has contributed his memories of Holsinger as a professor, a colleague, and a friend.

"It is hard to describe Professor Ralph Holsinger in a few words. He is the kind of person who deserves a biography. He was at IU for 24 years and that was a long time, but it was also less than a third of his life. He spent most of his days in so many other places: as a soldier who fought in the invasions at Salerno and Anzio in World War II; as a Phi Beta Kappa student at Ohio Wesleyan University; as a Washington Correspondent - a job he loved; as the managing editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer; and, since leaving IU almost a decade ago, as a writer, traveler and husband back in the Washington D.C. area.

Those 24 years at IU were important to Professor Holsinger and to the School of Journalism, but they were but an ingredient in a life well lived.

The Holsinger Family has requested that contributions in memory of Professor Holsinger be directed to one of the two funds in his name. The Ralph and Marjorie Holsinger Faculty Fellowship provides funding for faculty members to attend professional conferences and take summer internships to keep them connected with the profession. The Ralph Holsinger Scholarship is a merit-based scholarship and is available to students who have demonstrated academic achievement and have an interested in entering the profession. Give gifts on-line

While he was here, we knew him as an exceptional teacher of editing and of law and ethics. He wrote a successful textbook called Media Law that went through four editions. Jon Dilts joined him as co-author on the last two and whenever Holsinger wanted to talk about the book, they met at Holsinger's home outside Nashville, Indiana. He had a room there packed with books and papers and an old computer. He had dogs and trained them to chase the golf balls he hit from the hill behind the house. Holsinger loved to swing a golf club just for the physical joy of it, and he loved to talk about the law and journalism and whatever was going on in Washington. He was a civic theater actor in Nashville and sometimes an expert witness at libel trials around the country. He was a frequent speaker at professional conferences and a writing coach for the Indianapolis Star. He was married three times and died leaving 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Holsinger's was a life of many parts, and he probably never thought of his work at IU as his career. He came here because he loved journalism and needed a job after leaving the Enquirer. And for 24 years, IU got all the parts of him - the soldier and the actor, the journalist and the scholar, the golfer and the teacher. It was a good deal for IU and a wonderful deal for his students, whom he treated like young professionals. He didn't react to student tears, and he thought a "C" to be an average and respectable grade. He was always a pro - a professional journalist and a professor of journalism. And his students loved him for it.

Before Professor Holsinger died, he wrote his own obituary, which appeared in The Washington Post, and he left instructions that he did not want a funeral. However, he told his wife, Margie, that it would be okay, if folks were so inclined, to have a martini in his memory. So, to Ralph Holsinger, cheers. "